Adams County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Adams County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Adams County spend about 21 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 86 hours, about 3.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 25% less time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 3.5 minutes.

Adams County holds about 0.3% of North Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Adams County would save about 34 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,066 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)
Adams County	10.3 min	20.6 min	86 hrs/yr	$2,666	110
North Dakota	13.8 min	27.6 min	115 hrs/yr	$3,567	360
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 Dakota Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 10.3 minutes to get to work in Adams County. That's 54% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 81% of counties in North Dakota

The most common departure window is 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Adams County

• Car: 86.7%
• Worked at Home: 10.9%
• Walked: 1.5%
• Other: 0.6%
• Bicycle: 0.3%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Adams County, versus 0.2% in North Dakota.

Public transit is essentially absent in Adams County, versus 0.3% in North Dakota.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Adams County, versus 0.1% in North Dakota.

Commute Mode Trends in Adams County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	80.6%	14.5%	4.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2010	74.4%	18.8%	6.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2011	76.3%	15.2%	8.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	77.7%	12.8%	9.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	79.1%	9.7%	9.8%	0.6%	0.2%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	79.8%	9.0%	8.7%	0.9%	0.9%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	80.9%	9.7%	6.8%	0.9%	0.9%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	83.5%	7.9%	5.6%	1.1%	1.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	83.2%	7.3%	6.0%	1.0%	1.9%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	81.9%	9.7%	6.2%	0.3%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	79.4%	11.5%	7.6%	0.0%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	76.6%	15.0%	7.0%	0.0%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	78.6%	14.8%	5.1%	0.0%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	78.3%	16.7%	4.7%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	81.6%	14.5%	3.3%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	86.7%	10.9%	1.5%	0.6%	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 bottomed out in 2010 at 74.4%. Overall it rose from 80.6% in 2009 to 86.7% in 2024, up 6.1 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 14.5% to 10.9% of workers (down 3.6 percentage points).

Walking peaked at 9.8% in 2013 and has since fallen back to 1.5%.

Commute Start Times in Adams County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Adams County?

The bars show when commuters in Adams 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 Dakota for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Adams County2.2% North Dakota3.6%	2.2%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Adams County1.1% North Dakota2.7%	1.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Adams County5.6% North Dakota4.4%	5.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Adams County4.5% North Dakota6.7%	4.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Adams County20.2% North Dakota11.2%	20.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Adams County19.9% North Dakota14.8%	19.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Adams County18.1% North Dakota20.9%	18.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Adams County8.3% North Dakota11.0%	8.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Adams County5.2% North Dakota4.7%	5.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Adams County5.6% North Dakota4.5%	5.6%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Adams County1.8% North Dakota2.3%	1.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Adams County0.5% North Dakota1.0%	0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Adams County2.9% North Dakota6.4%	2.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Adams County4.2% North Dakota5.9%	4.2%

Adams County North Dakota Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Adams County is 6:30-6:59 AM, when 20.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.2% across North Dakota. Early starts are less common than in North Dakota: 8.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in North Dakota: 66.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (15.0%) 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 Adams 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 Adams 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 Adams County next to North Dakota 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.

• Adams County
• North Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Adams County	North Dakota	United States
2009	7:20 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:26 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:27 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:24 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:25 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:28 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:26 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:25 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:26 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:28 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:24 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:32 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:32 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:35 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:25 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Adams County were on the road by 7:25 AM, 5 minutes later than in 2009 (7:20 AM). That goes against the trend across North Dakota, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Adams County now leave 13 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Adams County's commute time compare?

Metric	Adams County	North Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	10.3 min	13.8 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.9%	8.1%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Adams County is 10.3 minutes, shorter than the 13.8 minutes in North Dakota.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in North Dakota. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 3.2% in North Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau