Macon County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Macon County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Macon County spend about 34 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 143 hours, about 6.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% less time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 4.7 minutes.

Macon County holds about 0.4% of North Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Macon County would save about 57 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,773 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)
Macon County	17.2 min	34.3 min	143 hrs/yr	$4,433	657
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 17.2 minutes to get to work in Macon County. That's 23% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Fastest county in North Carolina

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Macon County

• Car: 88.7%
• Worked at Home: 9.4%
• Walked: 1.5%
• Other: 0.1%
• Taxi: 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Macon County, versus 0.1% in North Carolina.

Public transit is unusually rare in Macon County: 10.6 times less than the North Carolina average (0.1% vs 0.7%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Macon County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Other	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	94.8%	3.4%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2010	93.5%	4.4%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%
2011	93.5%	3.9%	1.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
2012	93.2%	4.2%	1.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2013	92.6%	3.8%	1.9%	0.4%	0.0%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2014	91.8%	4.3%	1.6%	0.3%	0.0%	1.9%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	92.1%	3.7%	1.7%	0.5%	0.0%	2.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	91.9%	3.1%	1.8%	0.5%	0.0%	2.7%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	90.5%	4.0%	1.6%	0.4%	0.0%	3.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	90.8%	4.1%	2.3%	0.2%	0.0%	2.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	90.1%	4.5%	2.3%	0.2%	0.0%	2.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	90.6%	3.9%	2.3%	0.2%	0.0%	2.9%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	91.8%	4.2%	2.1%	0.1%	0.0%	1.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	90.7%	5.4%	2.1%	0.2%	0.0%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	89.7%	7.0%	1.4%	0.2%	0.1%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	88.7%	9.4%	1.5%	0.1%	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. Overall its share fell from 94.8% in 2009 to 88.7% in 2024, down 6.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Macon County: its share of workers rose from 3.4% in 2009 to 9.4% in 2024, up 6.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Macon County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Macon County?

The bars show when commuters in Macon 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 Macon County2.5% North Carolina4.4%	2.5%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Macon County3.4% North Carolina3.5%	3.4%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Macon County5.6% North Carolina4.6%	5.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Macon County5.0% North Carolina9.0%	5.0%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Macon County10.9% North Carolina10.2%	10.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Macon County11.9% North Carolina15.3%	11.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Macon County16.9% North Carolina12.8%	16.9%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Macon County12.0% North Carolina11.7%	12.0%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Macon County5.7% North Carolina5.4%	5.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Macon County8.7% North Carolina6.4%	8.7%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Macon County3.3% North Carolina2.8%	3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Macon County2.2% North Carolina1.4%	2.2%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Macon County6.8% North Carolina6.3%	6.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Macon County5.2% North Carolina6.4%	5.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Macon County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 16.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.8% across North Carolina. Early starts are less common than in North Carolina: 11.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 51.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.1%) 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 Macon 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 Macon 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 Macon 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.

• Macon County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Macon County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:45 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:46 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:48 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:54 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:54 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:51 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:50 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:51 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:48 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:48 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:46 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:45 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:44 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:46 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:49 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Macon County were on the road by 7:49 AM, 6 minutes later than in 2009 (7:43 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Carolina, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Macon County now leave 11 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Macon County's commute time compare?

Metric	Macon County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.2 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	9.4%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Macon County is 17.2 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau