Commuting in Randolph County, North Carolina: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
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What does a typical morning commute look like in Randolph County?
Map AI9/24/26, 5:03 PM
Commute Time Burden in Randolph County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Randolph County spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 182 hours, about 7.6 full days, spent commuting. That is about the same time on the road as the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way.
Randolph County holds about 1.4% of North Carolina's population and accounts for roughly 1.4% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Randolph County would save about 73 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,257 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)
Randolph County
21.8 min
43.7 min
182 hrs/yr
$5,642
1,237
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.
On average, it takes
21.8
minutes to get to work in
Randolph County.
That's 3% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.2% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Randolph County
Car:
91.6%
Worked at Home:
7.2%
Other:
0.9%
Walked:
0.3%unusually low
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%unusually low
Public Transportation:
< 0.1%unusually low
Bicycle:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Randolph County: 4.2 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.1%).
Walking is unusually rare in Randolph County: 5.0 times less than the North Carolina average (0.3% vs 1.6%).
Public transit is unusually rare in Randolph County: 55.1 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.7%).
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Randolph County, versus 0.2% in North Carolina.
Biking is unusually rare in Randolph County: 58.2 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.2%).
Few people walk or bike to work in Randolph County: just 0.3%, 5.5 times below the North Carolina average of 1.8%.
Commute Mode Trends in Randolph County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Randolph 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.
Share of workers aged 16 and over, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show commute mode data by year
Year
Car
Worked at Home
Other
Walked
Public Transportation
Taxi
Motorcycle
Bicycle
2009
95.7%
2.5%
0.4%
1.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.3%
0.0%
2010
95.9%
2.5%
0.3%
0.9%
0.1%
0.0%
0.3%
0.0%
2011
95.9%
2.3%
0.3%
1.2%
0.1%
0.0%
0.3%
0.0%
2012
95.8%
2.3%
0.2%
1.3%
0.1%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2013
95.6%
2.3%
0.4%
1.4%
0.1%
0.0%
0.2%
0.0%
2014
95.7%
2.3%
0.4%
1.2%
0.1%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2015
95.5%
2.1%
0.5%
1.4%
0.1%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2016
95.2%
2.2%
0.7%
1.2%
0.4%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2017
95.2%
2.5%
0.9%
0.8%
0.3%
0.0%
0.2%
0.0%
2018
94.5%
3.1%
1.0%
0.8%
0.4%
0.0%
0.2%
0.0%
2019
94.6%
3.3%
0.9%
0.7%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2020
94.2%
4.0%
1.0%
0.5%
0.2%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2021
93.4%
5.1%
0.9%
0.4%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2022
92.2%
6.3%
0.8%
0.4%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2023
92.2%
6.3%
1.0%
0.4%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2024
91.6%
7.2%
0.9%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
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 2010 at 95.9%. Overall it fell from 95.7% in 2009 to 91.6% in 2024, down 4.1 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.
Working from home gained the most ground in Randolph County: its share of workers rose from 2.5% in 2009 to 7.2% in 2024, up 4.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.1% to 0.3% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).
Commute Start Times in Randolph County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Randolph County?
The bars show when commuters in Randolph 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.
Randolph CountyNorth CarolinaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Randolph County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across North Carolina. Early starts are more common than in North Carolina: 18.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 48.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.8%) 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 Randolph 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 Randolph 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 Randolph 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.
Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show typical departure times by year
Year
Randolph County
North Carolina
United States
2009
7:23 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:22 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:23 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:25 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:26 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:23 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:22 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:21 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:21 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:18 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:20 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:21 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:21 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:18 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:19 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:19 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Randolph County were on the road by 7:19 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:23 AM). That goes against the trend across North Carolina, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Randolph County now leave 19 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).
How does Randolph County's commute time compare?
Metric
Randolph County
North Carolina
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
21.8 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
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
7.2%
16.3%
15.0%
Walked
0.3%
1.6%
2.4%
Public Transit
< 0.1%
0.7%
3.2%
The average commute time in Randolph County is about the same as in North Carolina.
0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 0.3% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.
Randolph County, NC Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Randolph County, NC is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 146,354 residents against a local median of 173,005. Randolph County, NC's work from home, at 7.2%, runs 37% below the 11.3% typical of the counties around it.
The counties themselves spread 8.0% on work from home, so Randolph County, NC sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Randolph County, NC has the 5th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Randolph County, North Carolina.
Is living in Randolph County, North Carolina good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 182 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,642 at a typical national wage.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Randolph County, North Carolina?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Randolph County, North Carolina. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Randolph County, North Carolina?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 0.7% in North Carolina, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
How do commute times compare across counties in North Carolina?
Among counties in North Carolina, the shortest average commutes are in Macon County (17.2 min), Watauga County (17.2 min), Dare County (17.4 min). The longest are in Gates County (35.9 min), Currituck County (33.9 min), Tyrrell County (33.6 min).