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Barnes County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Barnes County, North Dakota: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 7:59 PM
Is the commute in Barnes County longer than the national average?
Map AI 9/24/26, 7:59 PM

Commute Time Burden in Barnes County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Barnes County spend about 25 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 104 hours, about 4.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 10% less time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 1.4 minutes.

Barnes County holds about 1.4% of North Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 1.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Barnes County would save about 41 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,285 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)
Barnes County 12.4 min 24.9 min 104 hrs/yr $3,212 156
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

Fastest commutes among counties in North Dakota
  1. McIntosh County (6.9 min)
  2. Foster County (7.7 min)
  3. Pierce County (7.7 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in North Dakota
  1. McHenry County (28.9 min)
  2. Renville County (23.5 min)
  3. Oliver County (22.8 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Barnes County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 12.4 minutes to get to work in Barnes County. That's 45% 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 6.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Barnes County

  • Car: 86.9%
  • Worked at Home: 6.9%
  • Walked: 4.8%
  • Other: 0.9%
  • Taxi: 0.5% unusually high
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

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

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Barnes County: 4.5 times more than the North Dakota average (0.5% vs 0.1%).

Biking is essentially absent in Barnes County, versus 0.3% in North Dakota.

Commute Mode Trends in Barnes County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Barnes 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 Walked Other Taxi Public Transportation Motorcycle Bicycle
2009 85.8% 7.3% 4.9% 0.5% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 1.3%
2010 84.3% 8.2% 5.2% 0.9% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.4%
2011 84.9% 7.1% 6.1% 0.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.0%
2012 84.7% 6.7% 7.4% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.3%
2013 86.1% 5.3% 7.2% 1.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1%
2014 86.4% 5.1% 7.2% 0.9% 0.2% 0.3% 0.0% 0.1%
2015 84.2% 4.3% 10.1% 0.7% 0.2% 0.4% 0.0% 0.2%
2016 87.2% 4.0% 6.8% 0.6% 0.3% 0.7% 0.0% 0.3%
2017 87.9% 4.3% 5.5% 0.7% 0.3% 1.0% 0.0% 0.3%
2018 87.7% 4.7% 5.6% 0.4% 0.1% 1.1% 0.0% 0.3%
2019 89.8% 3.5% 5.4% 0.4% 0.0% 0.5% 0.0% 0.5%
2020 89.3% 3.9% 5.3% 0.5% 0.0% 0.6% 0.0% 0.4%
2021 88.3% 4.3% 6.5% 0.7% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 89.7% 4.5% 5.1% 0.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 89.2% 4.7% 5.2% 0.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 86.9% 6.9% 4.8% 0.9% 0.5% 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 was highest in 2019 at 89.8% and lowest in 2015 at 84.2%. Overall it rose from 85.8% in 2009 to 86.9% in 2024, up 1.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Taking a taxi gained the most ground in Barnes County: its share of workers rose from 0.0% in 2009 to 0.5% in 2024, up 0.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 0.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Biking lost the most ground, falling from 1.3% to 0.0% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Taking a taxi overtook public transit to become the 5th most common choice in the 2024 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 10.1% in 2015 and has since fallen back to 4.8%.

Commute Start Times in Barnes County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Barnes County?

The bars show when commuters in Barnes 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
3.6%
5:00-5:29 AM
2.8%
5:30-5:59 AM
6.1%
6:00-6:29 AM
4.8%
6:30-6:59 AM
9.5%
7:00-7:29 AM
16.9%
7:30-7:59 AM
20.4%
8:00-8:29 AM
13.4%
8:30-8:59 AM
2.2%
9:00-9:59 AM
4.0%
10:00-10:59 AM
2.0%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM
7.8%
4:00-11:59 PM
5.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Barnes County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 20.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 20.9% across North Dakota. Early starts are more common than in North Dakota: 12.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in North Dakota: 60.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.4%) 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 Barnes 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 Barnes 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 Barnes 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.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Show typical departure times by year
Year Barnes County North Dakota United States
2009 7:38 AM 7:42 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:37 AM 7:42 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:39 AM 7:41 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:41 AM 7:40 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:42 AM 7:40 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:43 AM 7:39 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:47 AM 7:38 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:45 AM 7:38 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:43 AM 7:38 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:37 AM 7:38 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:36 AM 7:38 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:37 AM 7:39 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:36 AM 7:39 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:35 AM 7:39 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:39 AM 7:39 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:39 AM 7:40 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Barnes County were on the road by 7:39 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (7:38 AM). That goes against the trend across North Dakota, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Barnes County now leave 2 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 Barnes County has moved 4 minutes later.

How does Barnes County's commute time compare?

Metric Barnes County North Dakota US Average
Avg. Commute Time 12.4 min 13.8 min 22.4 min
Departure Window 07:30 AM – 07:59 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 6.9% 8.1% 15.0%
Walked 4.8% 3.2% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 0.3% 3.2%

The average commute time in Barnes County is 12.4 minutes, shorter than the 13.8 minutes in North Dakota.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in North Dakota. 4.8% commute by walking, higher than the 3.2% in North Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Barnes County, ND Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Barnes County, ND is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 10,773 residents against a local median of 4,118. The measure that sets Barnes County, ND apart most is work from home: 6.9%, 33% below the local median of 10.2%.

The counties themselves spread 5.4% on work from home, so Barnes County, ND sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Barnes County, ND has the 5th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Barnes County, ND 10,773 12.4 min #1/6 6.9% #5/6 7:39 AM #2/6
Griggs County, ND 2,245 12.5 min 6.9% 7:40 AM
Steele County, ND 1,804 13.2 min 12.3% 7:26 AM
Ransom County, ND 5,643 15.3 min 10.2% 7:45 AM
LaMoure County, ND 4,118 13.0 min 11.9% 7:41 AM
Cass County, ND 193,305 15.6 min 10.0% 7:45 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Barnes County, North Dakota.

Is living in Barnes County, North Dakota good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 104 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,212 at a typical national wage. That's 10% less than the typical North Dakota commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Barnes County, North Dakota?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Barnes County, North Dakota. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Barnes County, North Dakota?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 0.3% in North Dakota, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

Which counties in North Dakota have the fastest and slowest commutes?

Among counties in North Dakota, the shortest average commutes are in McIntosh County (6.9 min), Foster County (7.7 min), Pierce County (7.7 min). The longest are in McHenry County (28.9 min), Renville County (23.5 min), Oliver County (22.8 min).