Pierce County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Pierce County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Pierce 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 44% less time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 6.1 minutes.

Pierce County holds about 0.5% of North Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Pierce County would save about 26 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $798 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)
Pierce County	7.7 min	15.4 min	64 hrs/yr	$1,995	142
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 Pierce 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 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Pierce County

• Car: 86.2%
• Worked at Home: 10.2%
• Walked: 3.3%
• Bicycle: 0.3%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Other: < 0.1%

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Pierce County: 14981.9 times less than the North Dakota average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Pierce County: 55849.3 times less than the North Dakota average (0.0% vs 0.3%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Pierce County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Other
2009	81.5%	10.5%	7.1%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	82.1%	9.9%	6.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	1.0%	0.0%
2011	78.9%	7.5%	10.1%	0.7%	2.0%	0.0%	0.8%	0.1%
2012	82.2%	6.1%	8.4%	1.0%	1.3%	0.0%	0.7%	0.2%
2013	84.9%	5.4%	6.8%	0.3%	1.5%	0.0%	0.8%	0.2%
2014	83.2%	7.0%	6.9%	0.0%	2.1%	0.0%	0.7%	0.1%
2015	84.1%	4.9%	8.2%	0.0%	2.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	88.3%	5.5%	6.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	87.8%	6.9%	5.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	89.2%	6.2%	4.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	90.7%	4.8%	4.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2020	90.6%	7.1%	2.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	86.2%	10.0%	3.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2022	85.0%	10.4%	4.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2023	87.6%	8.8%	3.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2024	86.2%	10.2%	3.3%	0.3%	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 90.7% and lowest in 2011 at 78.9%. Overall it rose from 81.5% in 2009 to 86.2% in 2024, up 4.7 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 7.1% to 3.3% of workers (down 3.8 percentage points).

Public transit peaked at 2.6% in 2015 and has since fallen back to 0.0%.

Commute Start Times in Pierce County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Pierce County?

The bars show when commuters in Pierce 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 Pierce County5.9% North Dakota3.6%	5.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Pierce County1.0% North Dakota2.7%	1.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Pierce County2.1% North Dakota4.4%	2.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Pierce County2.8% North Dakota6.7%	2.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Pierce County17.5% North Dakota11.2%	17.5%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Pierce County5.7% North Dakota14.8%	5.7%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Pierce County32.8% North Dakota20.9%	32.8%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Pierce County11.5% North Dakota11.0%	11.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Pierce County6.8% North Dakota4.7%	6.8%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Pierce County8.8% North Dakota4.5%	8.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Pierce County0.4% North Dakota2.3%	0.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Pierce County1.5% North Dakota1.0%	1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Pierce County1.2% North Dakota6.4%	1.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Pierce County1.9% North Dakota5.9%	1.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Pierce County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 32.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 20.9% across North Dakota. Early starts are less common than in North Dakota: 9.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in North Dakota: 67.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (13.9%) 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 Pierce 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 Pierce 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 Pierce 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.

• Pierce County
• North Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Pierce County	North Dakota	United States
2009	7:47 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:46 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:45 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:46 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:45 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:46 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:48 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:49 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:49 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:51 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:48 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:47 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:40 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:39 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:41 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:44 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Pierce County were on the road by 7:44 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:47 AM). North Dakota followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Pierce County now leave 6 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 Pierce County has moved 4 minutes earlier.

How does Pierce County's commute time compare?

Metric	Pierce 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.2%	8.1%	15.0%
Walked	3.3%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Pierce 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. 3.3% commute by walking, higher than the 3.2% in North Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau