McLean County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in McLean County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in McLean County spend about 35 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 145 hours, about 6.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 26% more time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 3.6 minutes.

McLean County holds about 1.3% of North Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 1.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in McLean County would save about 58 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,804 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)
McLean County	17.5 min	34.9 min	145 hrs/yr	$4,510	192
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 17.5 minutes to get to work in McLean County. That's 22% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 88% of counties in North Dakota

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 8.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in McLean County

• Car: 86.1%
• Worked at Home: 8.2%
• Walked: 4.0%
• Other: 1.5%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Public transit is unusually rare in McLean County: 5.2 times less than the North Dakota average (0.1% vs 0.3%).

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

Biking is unusually rare in McLean County: 3.1 times less than the North Dakota average (0.1% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in McLean County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in McLean 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
• Bicycle
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	79.8%	12.4%	6.5%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	81.1%	10.7%	7.1%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	82.3%	10.5%	6.4%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	84.3%	10.0%	5.2%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	85.4%	8.8%	5.2%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	84.6%	7.9%	6.3%	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	83.8%	9.5%	5.7%	0.4%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	82.9%	11.1%	4.9%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	81.3%	12.3%	5.0%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	83.0%	10.5%	5.4%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	84.9%	9.9%	4.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	86.7%	8.6%	3.2%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	88.4%	6.5%	3.9%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	87.7%	7.0%	4.1%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	84.9%	8.8%	4.6%	1.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	86.1%	8.2%	4.0%	1.5%	0.1%	0.1%	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 2021 at 88.4%. Overall it rose from 79.8% in 2009 to 86.1% in 2024, up 6.3 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 12.4% to 8.2% of workers (down 4.2 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in McLean County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in McLean County?

The bars show when commuters in McLean 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 McLean County4.3% North Dakota3.6%	4.3%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM McLean County5.0% North Dakota2.7%	5.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM McLean County7.3% North Dakota4.4%	7.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM McLean County6.1% North Dakota6.7%	6.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM McLean County9.5% North Dakota11.2%	9.5%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM McLean County19.2% North Dakota14.8%	19.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM McLean County18.6% North Dakota20.9%	18.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM McLean County11.3% North Dakota11.0%	11.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM McLean County2.7% North Dakota4.7%	2.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM McLean County4.2% North Dakota4.5%	4.2%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM McLean County1.1% North Dakota2.3%	1.1%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM McLean County0.4% North Dakota1.0%	0.4%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM McLean County4.7% North Dakota6.4%	4.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM McLean County5.5% North Dakota5.9%	5.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in McLean County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 19.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across North Dakota. Early starts are more common than in North Dakota: 16.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush looks much like North Dakota's: 58.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.0%) 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 McLean 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 McLean 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 McLean 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.

• McLean County
• North Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	McLean County	North Dakota	United States
2009	7:35 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:36 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:35 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:32 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:34 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:32 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:29 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:27 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:29 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:34 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:31 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:30 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:32 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:28 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in McLean County were on the road by 7:28 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:35 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Dakota, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in McLean County now leave 10 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does McLean County's commute time compare?

Metric	McLean County	North Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.5 min	13.8 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.2%	8.1%	15.0%
Walked	4.0%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in McLean County is 17.5 minutes, longer than the 13.8 minutes in North Dakota.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in North Dakota. 4.0% commute by walking, higher than the 3.2% in North Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau