Commuting in Grand Forks County, North Dakota: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
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Is the commute in Grand Forks County longer than the national average?
Map AI9/24/26, 7:58 PM
Commute Time Burden in Grand Forks County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Grand Forks 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 9% less time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 1.3 minutes.
Grand Forks County holds about 9.3% of North Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 8.4% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Grand Forks County would save about 42 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,293 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)
Grand Forks County
12.5 min
25.0 min
104 hrs/yr
$3,233
830
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.
On average, it takes
12.5
minutes to get to work in
Grand Forks County.
That's 44% 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 6.5% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Grand Forks County
Car:
87.3%
Worked at Home:
6.5%
Walked:
3.1%
Public Transportation:
1.1%unusually high
Motorcycle:
0.7%unusually high
Other:
0.6%
Taxi:
0.5%unusually high
Bicycle:
0.2%
Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Grand Forks County: 3.6 times more than the North Dakota average (0.7% vs 0.2%).
Public transit is unusually common in Grand Forks County: 3.4 times more than the North Dakota average (1.1% vs 0.3%).
Taking a taxi is unusually common in Grand Forks County: 4.5 times more than the North Dakota average (0.5% vs 0.1%).
Commute Mode Trends in Grand Forks County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Grand Forks 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
Public Transportation
Motorcycle
Other
Taxi
Bicycle
2009
90.7%
3.2%
3.8%
0.9%
0.3%
0.4%
0.0%
0.6%
2010
89.5%
3.2%
4.0%
1.5%
0.4%
0.6%
0.2%
0.7%
2011
88.5%
3.7%
4.3%
1.6%
0.4%
0.5%
0.2%
0.9%
2012
88.0%
4.2%
4.0%
1.5%
0.4%
0.6%
0.2%
1.0%
2013
88.5%
3.9%
4.4%
1.2%
0.3%
0.5%
0.3%
0.9%
2014
88.5%
4.2%
4.2%
1.2%
0.2%
0.6%
0.3%
0.8%
2015
89.7%
4.1%
3.8%
1.0%
0.2%
0.5%
0.1%
0.5%
2016
89.6%
4.0%
3.5%
0.9%
0.3%
0.6%
0.1%
1.0%
2017
89.8%
3.5%
3.9%
0.8%
0.3%
0.5%
0.1%
1.1%
2018
89.7%
3.2%
4.3%
0.9%
0.3%
0.6%
0.0%
1.0%
2019
90.2%
3.0%
4.5%
1.0%
0.2%
0.5%
0.0%
0.6%
2020
89.4%
4.1%
4.0%
1.1%
0.2%
0.3%
0.0%
0.9%
2021
88.4%
4.9%
4.4%
1.2%
0.1%
0.4%
0.1%
0.5%
2022
88.5%
4.9%
4.2%
1.3%
0.1%
0.5%
0.2%
0.3%
2023
88.7%
5.5%
3.4%
0.9%
0.5%
0.5%
0.3%
0.3%
2024
87.3%
6.5%
3.1%
1.1%
0.7%
0.6%
0.5%
0.2%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 90.7% in 2009 to 87.3% in 2024, down 3.4 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.
Working from home gained the most ground in Grand Forks County: its share of workers rose from 3.2% in 2009 to 6.5% in 2024, up 3.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.8% to 3.1% of workers (down 0.7 percentage points).
Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.
Commute Start Times in Grand Forks County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Grand Forks County?
The bars show when commuters in Grand Forks 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.
Grand Forks CountyNorth DakotaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Grand Forks County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 19.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 20.9% across North Dakota. Early starts are about as common as in North Dakota: 10.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in North Dakota: 54.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.1%) 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 Grand Forks 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 Grand Forks 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 Grand Forks 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
Grand Forks County
North Dakota
United States
2009
7:50 AM
7:42 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:49 AM
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:49 AM
7:41 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:50 AM
7:40 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:50 AM
7:40 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:48 AM
7:39 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:48 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:48 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:47 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:47 AM
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:46 AM
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:47 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:49 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:47 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:46 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:45 AM
7:40 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Grand Forks County were on the road by 7:45 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:50 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Dakota, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Grand Forks County now leave 7 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Grand Forks County in the whole series.
How does Grand Forks County's commute time compare?
Metric
Grand Forks County
North Dakota
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
12.5 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
6.5%
8.1%
15.0%
Walked
3.1%
3.2%
2.4%
Public Transit
1.1%
0.3%
3.2%
The average commute time in Grand Forks County is 12.5 minutes, shorter than the 13.8 minutes in North Dakota.
1.1% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.3% in North Dakota. 3.1% commute by walking, lower than the 3.2% in North Dakota.
Grand Forks County, ND Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Grand Forks County, ND is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 72,923 residents against a local median of 6,727. Grand Forks County, ND's work from home, at 6.5%, runs 18% below the 7.9% typical of the counties around it.
The counties themselves spread 8.0% on work from home, so Grand Forks County, ND sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Grand Forks County, ND has the 4th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Grand Forks County, North Dakota.
Is living in Grand Forks County, North Dakota good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 104 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,233 at a typical national wage. That's 9% less than the typical North Dakota commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Grand Forks County, North Dakota?
Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Grand Forks 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 Grand Forks County, North Dakota?
Public transit usage is notably higher here than typical: about 1.1% of commuters use it versus 0.3% in North Dakota, making it a realistic option for many workers.
How do commute times compare across counties in North Dakota?
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).