Steele County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Steele County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Steele County spend about 26 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 110 hours, about 4.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 4% less time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 0.6 minutes.

Steele County holds about 0.2% of North Dakota's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Steele County would save about 44 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,363 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)
Steele County	13.2 min	26.4 min	110 hrs/yr	$3,409	167
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 13.2 minutes to get to work in Steele County. That's 41% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Steele County

• Car: 81.4%
• Worked at Home: 12.3%
• Walked: 5.9%
• Other: 0.5%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

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

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

Biking is unusually rare in Steele County: 249077330.6 times less than the North Dakota average (0.0% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Steele County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Steele 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	80.0%	9.1%	9.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%
2010	79.8%	9.3%	8.8%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.0%
2011	82.0%	6.9%	9.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.2%
2012	80.9%	9.4%	8.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.0%
2013	84.1%	6.7%	8.5%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	82.1%	6.4%	11.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	79.3%	9.3%	10.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	74.6%	14.9%	9.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2017	76.2%	13.8%	8.8%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2018	77.4%	15.1%	6.0%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2019	78.9%	14.3%	5.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2020	81.0%	12.9%	4.9%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2021	84.3%	9.2%	6.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	81.7%	11.4%	6.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	81.3%	11.1%	7.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	81.4%	12.3%	5.9%	0.5%	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 2021 at 84.3% and lowest in 2016 at 74.6%. Overall it rose from 80.0% in 2009 to 81.4% in 2024, up 1.4 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Steele County: its share of workers rose from 9.1% in 2009 to 12.3% in 2024, up 3.2 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 9.9% to 5.9% of workers (down 4.0 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2016 release and has stayed ahead since.

Working from home peaked at 15.1% in 2018 and has since fallen back to 12.3%.

Commute Start Times in Steele County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Steele County?

The bars show when commuters in Steele 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 Steele County6.1% North Dakota3.6%	6.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Steele County2.0% North Dakota2.7%	2.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Steele County0.3% North Dakota4.4%	0.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Steele County7.6% North Dakota6.7%	7.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Steele County14.7% North Dakota11.2%	14.7%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Steele County22.5% North Dakota14.8%	22.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Steele County15.4% North Dakota20.9%	15.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Steele County17.4% North Dakota11.0%	17.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Steele County3.4% North Dakota4.7%	3.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Steele County3.4% North Dakota4.5%	3.4%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Steele County3.3% North Dakota2.3%	3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Steele County0.0% North Dakota1.0%	0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Steele County3.3% North Dakota6.4%	3.3%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Steele County0.6% North Dakota5.9%	0.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Steele County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 22.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across North Dakota. Early starts are less common than in North Dakota: 8.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in North Dakota: 70.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 9 commuters (10.6%) 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 Steele 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 Steele 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 Steele 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.

• Steele County
• North Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Steele County	North Dakota	United States
2009	7:33 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:31 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:37 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:28 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:25 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:19 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:21 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:17 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:25 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:31 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:27 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:26 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:24 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:26 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:26 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Steele County were on the road by 7:26 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:33 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Dakota, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Steele County now leave 12 minutes 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 Steele County has moved 5 minutes earlier.

How does Steele County's commute time compare?

Metric	Steele County	North Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.2 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.3%	8.1%	15.0%
Walked	5.9%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Steele County is 13.2 minutes, shorter than the 13.8 minutes in North Dakota.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in North Dakota. 5.9% commute by walking, higher than the 3.2% in North Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau