Foster County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Foster County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Foster County spend about 15 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 64 hours, about 2.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 45% less time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 6.1 minutes.

Foster County holds about 0.4% 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 Foster County would save about 26 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $792 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)
Foster County	7.7 min	15.3 min	64 hrs/yr	$1,979	153
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 7.7 minutes to get to work in Foster County. That's 66% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the top 3 fastest counties in North Dakota

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 7.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Foster County

• Car: 88.0%
• Worked at Home: 7.7%
• Walked: 2.3%
• Other: 1.9%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

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

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Foster County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	85.5%	9.0%	3.6%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
2010	83.0%	11.1%	3.2%	1.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%
2011	86.4%	7.8%	3.3%	1.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2012	87.3%	6.6%	4.1%	1.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2013	87.4%	6.4%	4.6%	1.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	87.7%	5.9%	5.7%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	88.4%	5.0%	5.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	88.1%	5.3%	5.8%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	88.0%	5.7%	5.2%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	86.2%	6.6%	5.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2019	88.5%	5.5%	4.0%	1.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2020	86.6%	8.3%	3.5%	0.9%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	87.6%	7.5%	3.1%	0.9%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2022	87.3%	7.1%	4.1%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2023	88.2%	7.3%	1.9%	2.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2024	88.0%	7.7%	2.3%	1.9%	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 was highest in 2019 at 88.5% and lowest in 2010 at 83.0%. Overall it rose from 85.5% in 2009 to 88.0% in 2024, up 2.5 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.6% to 2.3% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 11.1% in 2010 and has since fallen back to 7.7%.

Commute Start Times in Foster County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Foster County?

The bars show when commuters in Foster 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 Foster County1.6% North Dakota3.6%	1.6%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Foster County3.3% North Dakota2.7%	3.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Foster County5.1% North Dakota4.4%	5.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Foster County6.1% North Dakota6.7%	6.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Foster County9.9% North Dakota11.2%	9.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Foster County19.5% North Dakota14.8%	19.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Foster County20.0% North Dakota20.9%	20.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Foster County18.9% North Dakota11.0%	18.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Foster County0.7% North Dakota4.7%	0.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Foster County5.8% North Dakota4.5%	5.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Foster County2.0% North Dakota2.3%	2.0%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Foster County0.8% North Dakota1.0%	0.8%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Foster County2.0% North Dakota6.4%	2.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Foster County4.4% North Dakota5.9%	4.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Foster County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 20.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 20.9% across North Dakota. Early starts are about as common as in North Dakota: 9.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in North Dakota: 68.3% 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 Foster 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 Foster 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 Foster 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.

• Foster County
• North Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Foster County	North Dakota	United States
2009	7:39 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:36 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:34 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:33 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:36 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:37 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:37 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:40 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:43 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:46 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:47 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:41 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:41 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:41 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:37 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Foster County were on the road by 7:37 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:39 AM). North Dakota followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Foster County now leave 1 minute 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 Foster County has moved 10 minutes earlier.

How does Foster County's commute time compare?

Metric	Foster County	North Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	7.7 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	7.7%	8.1%	15.0%
Walked	2.3%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Foster County is 7.7 minutes, shorter than the 13.8 minutes in North Dakota.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in North Dakota. 2.3% commute by walking, lower than the 3.2% in North Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau