Rockingham County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Rockingham County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Rockingham County spend about 50 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 209 hours, about 8.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 15% more time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 3.2 minutes.

Rockingham County holds about 0.9% 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 Rockingham County would save about 84 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,589 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)
Rockingham County	25.1 min	50.1 min	209 hrs/yr	$6,471	970
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 25.1 minutes to get to work in Rockingham County. That's 12% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 74% of 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 7.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Rockingham County

• Car: 89.2%
• Worked at Home: 7.0%
• Other: 1.8%
• Walked: 1.7%
• Motorcycle: 0.3% unusually high
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Rockingham County: 3.1 times more than the North Carolina average (0.3% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Rockingham County: 36.8 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.7%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Rockingham County, versus 0.2% in North Carolina.

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

Commute Mode Trends in Rockingham County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Motorcycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	95.6%	2.5%	0.2%	1.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	95.8%	2.3%	0.3%	1.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	95.6%	2.7%	0.4%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	96.0%	2.8%	0.3%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	96.2%	2.5%	0.3%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	95.9%	2.7%	0.4%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	95.3%	2.9%	0.4%	1.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	94.8%	3.2%	0.5%	1.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	94.6%	3.5%	0.5%	1.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	94.2%	3.9%	0.5%	1.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	94.5%	3.6%	0.7%	1.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	93.6%	3.6%	1.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	92.5%	3.9%	1.7%	1.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	91.5%	4.4%	2.3%	1.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	90.8%	5.0%	2.1%	1.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	89.2%	7.0%	1.8%	1.7%	0.3%	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 2013 at 96.2%. Overall it fell from 95.6% in 2009 to 89.2% in 2024, down 6.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Rockingham County: its share of workers rose from 2.5% in 2009 to 7.0% in 2024, up 4.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Rockingham County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Rockingham County?

The bars show when commuters in Rockingham 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 Rockingham County5.3% North Carolina4.4%	5.3%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Rockingham County4.0% North Carolina3.5%	4.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Rockingham County7.0% North Carolina4.6%	7.0%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Rockingham County10.3% North Carolina9.0%	10.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Rockingham County14.3% North Carolina10.2%	14.3%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Rockingham County15.0% North Carolina15.3%	15.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Rockingham County10.9% North Carolina12.8%	10.9%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Rockingham County9.5% North Carolina11.7%	9.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Rockingham County2.4% North Carolina5.4%	2.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Rockingham County4.3% North Carolina6.4%	4.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Rockingham County3.1% North Carolina2.8%	3.1%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Rockingham County1.0% North Carolina1.4%	1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Rockingham County5.8% North Carolina6.3%	5.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Rockingham County7.1% North Carolina6.4%	7.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Rockingham County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across North Carolina. Early starts are more common than in North Carolina: 16.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 49.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.3%) 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 Rockingham 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 Rockingham 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 Rockingham 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.

• Rockingham County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Rockingham County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:25 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:25 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:22 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:23 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:27 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:26 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:24 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:26 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:26 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:26 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:25 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:28 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:25 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:23 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:20 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:18 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Rockingham County were on the road by 7:18 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:25 AM). That goes against the trend across North Carolina, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Rockingham County now leave 20 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 Rockingham County has moved 7 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Rockingham County in the whole series.

How does Rockingham County's commute time compare?

Metric	Rockingham County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	25.1 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	7.0%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.7%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Rockingham County is 25.1 minutes, longer than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 1.7% commute by walking, higher than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau