Haywood County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Haywood County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Haywood County spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 172 hours, about 7.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 5% less time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 1.2 minutes.

Haywood County holds about 0.6% of North Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Haywood County would save about 69 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,135 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)
Haywood County	20.7 min	41.3 min	172 hrs/yr	$5,338	772
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

N

On average, it takes 20.7 minutes to get to work in Haywood County. That's 8% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Haywood County

• Car: 86.8%
• Worked at Home: 9.6%
• Walked: 2.7%
• Other: 0.7%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Bicycle: < 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Haywood County: 24.5 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.7%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Haywood County: 7.8 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Haywood County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Haywood 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
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle
• Public Transportation
• Taxi

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi
2009	92.3%	4.9%	1.2%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	92.2%	4.9%	1.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
2011	92.8%	4.8%	1.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2012	92.4%	4.9%	1.4%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%
2013	92.9%	4.0%	1.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	92.8%	4.0%	1.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.4%	0.3%
2015	93.1%	3.9%	1.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%	0.2%
2016	92.6%	3.8%	1.8%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.5%	0.1%
2017	92.4%	3.2%	1.9%	1.1%	0.1%	0.3%	0.5%	0.6%
2018	92.6%	3.6%	1.9%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.7%
2019	92.5%	3.9%	1.9%	0.7%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%	0.4%
2020	90.8%	4.0%	3.3%	1.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
2021	89.5%	5.6%	2.7%	1.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%
2022	89.1%	7.3%	2.6%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	88.1%	8.0%	2.8%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	86.8%	9.6%	2.7%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2015 at 93.1%. Overall it fell from 92.3% in 2009 to 86.8% in 2024, down 5.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Haywood County: its share of workers rose from 4.9% in 2009 to 9.6% in 2024, up 4.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Haywood County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Haywood County?

The bars show when commuters in Haywood 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 Haywood County4.0% North Carolina4.4%	4.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Haywood County1.7% North Carolina3.5%	1.7%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Haywood County5.5% North Carolina4.6%	5.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Haywood County6.2% North Carolina9.0%	6.2%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Haywood County8.8% North Carolina10.2%	8.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Haywood County16.6% North Carolina15.3%	16.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Haywood County17.5% North Carolina12.8%	17.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Haywood County9.1% North Carolina11.7%	9.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Haywood County5.0% North Carolina5.4%	5.0%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Haywood County8.0% North Carolina6.4%	8.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Haywood County2.4% North Carolina2.8%	2.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Haywood County1.9% North Carolina1.4%	1.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Haywood County6.8% North Carolina6.3%	6.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Haywood County6.5% North Carolina6.4%	6.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Haywood County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 17.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.8% across North Carolina. Early starts are less common than in North Carolina: 11.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 51.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.6%) 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 Haywood 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 Haywood 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 Haywood 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.

• Haywood County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Haywood County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:41 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:38 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:37 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:36 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:38 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:39 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:42 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:44 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:44 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:44 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:44 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Haywood County were on the road by 7:42 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:41 AM). North Carolina followed the same path, with the typical start moving 1 minute later. Commuters in Haywood County now leave 4 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Haywood County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Haywood County's commute time compare?

Metric	Haywood County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.7 min	21.9 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	9.6%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.7%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Haywood County is 20.7 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 2.7% commute by walking, higher than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau