Franklin County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Franklin County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Franklin County spend about 65 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 269 hours, about 11.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 48% more time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 10.4 minutes.

Franklin County holds about 0.7% of North Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 1.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Franklin County would save about 108 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,337 at the same national wage assumption used above.

Area	One-Way Commute	Daily Round-Trip	Yearly Time Spent	Estimated Yearly Cost	Local Road Traffic (VPD)
Franklin County	32.3 min	64.6 min	269 hrs/yr	$8,342	1,435
North Carolina	21.9 min	43.7 min	182 hrs/yr	$5,645	1,609
United States	22.4 min	44.8 min	187 hrs/yr	$5,790	1,355

The estimated yearly cost applies a single national rule of thumb (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics average hourly earnings), not a measurement of wages in this area - treat it as a rough estimate, not a paycheck figure. Local road traffic counts, vehicles per day on non-highway roads, come from proprietary Ticon and TrafficZoom data.

Commute Time Map: North Carolina Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 32.3 minutes to get to work in Franklin County. That's 44% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 5 slowest counties in North Carolina

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Franklin County

• Car: 86.4%
• Worked at Home: 12.5%
• Walked: 0.7%
• Other: 0.3%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Franklin County: 4.3 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Franklin County: 8.1 times less than the North Carolina average (0.1% vs 0.7%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Franklin County: 8.8 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is essentially absent in Franklin County, versus 0.2% in North Carolina.

Commute Mode Trends in Franklin County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Franklin County get to work, as a share of all workers aged 16 and over, across 16 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) releases from 2009 to 2024. Each release is a 5-year estimate: the 2024 figures cover surveys taken from 2020 to 2024. Because neighboring releases share most of their survey years, the lines move gradually, and a sudden change such as the rise of remote work in 2020 spreads across several releases. Hover over or tap a line to highlight it, and use the legend to show or hide a mode. Driving starts hidden so the smaller modes stay readable.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Walked
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	94.5%	2.8%	1.5%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	93.7%	3.3%	1.6%	1.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2011	92.9%	3.5%	2.3%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	92.5%	4.1%	2.2%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	92.8%	4.3%	1.7%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	92.7%	4.3%	1.6%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	92.1%	4.9%	1.7%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	92.3%	4.7%	1.5%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2017	91.7%	5.3%	1.8%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%
2018	92.7%	4.8%	1.5%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	93.2%	4.7%	1.3%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	92.2%	5.6%	1.0%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	90.5%	7.9%	0.9%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	89.6%	9.4%	0.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	88.6%	10.3%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	86.4%	12.5%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 94.5% in 2009 to 86.4% in 2024, down 8.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Franklin County: its share of workers rose from 2.8% in 2009 to 12.5% in 2024, up 9.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.5% to 0.7% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Franklin County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Franklin County?

The bars show when commuters in Franklin County leave home for work, as a share of everyone who commutes (people who work from home are not counted), from the 2024 ACS 5-year estimates. The thin violet marks show North Carolina for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Franklin County4.7% North Carolina4.4%	4.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Franklin County6.2% North Carolina3.5%	6.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Franklin County6.1% North Carolina4.6%	6.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Franklin County11.2% North Carolina9.0%	11.2%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Franklin County12.6% North Carolina10.2%	12.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Franklin County18.0% North Carolina15.3%	18.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Franklin County11.6% North Carolina12.8%	11.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Franklin County7.8% North Carolina11.7%	7.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Franklin County3.1% North Carolina5.4%	3.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Franklin County4.7% North Carolina6.4%	4.7%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Franklin County2.0% North Carolina2.8%	2.0%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Franklin County0.5% North Carolina1.4%	0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Franklin County5.5% North Carolina6.3%	5.5%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Franklin County5.9% North Carolina6.4%	5.9%

Franklin County North Carolina Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Franklin County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 18.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across North Carolina. Early starts are more common than in North Carolina: 17.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 50.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.6%) leave at 9 AM or later, which usually points to shift work, flexible hours or part-time jobs.

When people leave matters as much as how far they go. Rush-hour traffic shrinks how much ground a 20-minute trip covers, so a trade area drawn as a simple circle often takes in neighborhoods that customers or staff would never drive from and misses others that are an easy trip. A drive-time zone, also called an isochrone, outlines every place within a set number of minutes of an address, which makes it the more honest way to size a store's catchment, a hiring area or the commute from a new home.

See it for yourself on the interactive map: click any spot in Franklin County, pick a 5, 10, 15 or 30-minute drive and see the local demographics of the people who live within that exact drive time.

Is Franklin County Waking Up Earlier? Typical Departure Time, 2009-2024

Each line follows the typical (median) departure time: the moment by which half of commuters have already left home. Higher on the chart means a later start. Setting Franklin County next to North Carolina and the U.S. shows whether local mornings are drifting earlier or later than everyone else's. The figures span 16 ACS 5-year releases, so changes build up gradually rather than jumping from one year to the next.

• Franklin County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Franklin County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:08 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:07 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:12 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:14 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:16 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:17 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:19 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:17 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:15 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:12 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:12 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:12 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:12 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:14 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:15 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:15 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Franklin County were on the road by 7:15 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:08 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Carolina, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Franklin County now leave 23 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Franklin County has moved 3 minutes later.

How does Franklin County's commute time compare?

Metric	Franklin County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	32.3 min	21.9 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.5%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	0.7%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Franklin County is 32.3 minutes, longer than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 0.7% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau