Williams County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Williams County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Williams County spend about 28 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 116 hours, about 4.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% more time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 0.1 minutes.

Williams County holds about 5.0% of North Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 5.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Williams County would save about 46 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,440 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)
Williams County	13.9 min	27.9 min	116 hrs/yr	$3,600	464
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 13.9 minutes to get to work in Williams County. That's 38% 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 4.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Williams County

• Car: 91.5%
• Worked at Home: 4.0%
• Walked: 3.7%
• Other: 0.5%
• Public Transportation: 0.3%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

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

Biking is unusually rare in Williams County: 8.8 times less than the North Dakota average (0.0% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Williams County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Williams 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	88.9%	5.5%	3.3%	1.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2010	89.9%	4.9%	2.8%	1.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2011	90.2%	5.4%	2.2%	1.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2012	89.6%	5.7%	2.4%	2.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2013	90.3%	4.9%	3.2%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2014	91.3%	4.4%	3.2%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2015	90.4%	3.9%	4.7%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2016	90.1%	4.1%	5.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2017	90.9%	3.5%	4.9%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2018	93.5%	2.9%	2.7%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	93.3%	3.0%	2.4%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	93.5%	2.4%	2.8%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	93.5%	2.6%	2.5%	1.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	93.4%	2.9%	2.5%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	92.3%	3.2%	3.4%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.5%	4.0%	3.7%	0.5%	0.3%	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 peaked in 2018 at 93.5%. Overall it rose from 88.9% in 2009 to 91.5% in 2024, up 2.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 5.5% to 4.0% of workers (down 1.5 percentage points).

Walking peaked at 5.0% in 2016 and has since fallen back to 3.7%.

Commute Start Times in Williams County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Williams County?

The bars show when commuters in Williams 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 Williams County2.8% North Dakota3.6%	2.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Williams County1.3% North Dakota2.7%	1.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Williams County3.6% North Dakota4.4%	3.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Williams County8.1% North Dakota6.7%	8.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Williams County11.9% North Dakota11.2%	11.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Williams County14.5% North Dakota14.8%	14.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Williams County23.6% North Dakota20.9%	23.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Williams County9.5% North Dakota11.0%	9.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Williams County5.9% North Dakota4.7%	5.9%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Williams County6.5% North Dakota4.5%	6.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Williams County2.7% North Dakota2.3%	2.7%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Williams County0.3% North Dakota1.0%	0.3%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Williams County1.5% North Dakota6.4%	1.5%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Williams County7.8% North Dakota5.9%	7.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Williams County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 23.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 20.9% across North Dakota. Early starts are less common than in North Dakota: 7.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush looks much like North Dakota's: 59.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.8%) 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 Williams 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 Williams 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 Williams 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.

• Williams County
• North Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Williams County	North Dakota	United States
2009	7:44 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:44 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:42 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:40 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:39 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:35 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:34 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:32 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:31 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:32 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:30 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:36 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:40 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Williams County were on the road by 7:40 AM, 4 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:44 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Dakota, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Williams County now leave 2 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 Williams County has moved 9 minutes later.

How does Williams County's commute time compare?

Metric	Williams County	North Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.9 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	4.0%	8.1%	15.0%
Walked	3.7%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Williams County is about the same as in North Dakota.

The share of commuters using public transit is about the same as North Dakota. 3.7% commute by walking, higher than the 3.2% in North Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau