Commuting in Dakota County, Nebraska: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 1:05 PM
How much time do drivers in Dakota County spend on the road daily?
Map AI9/24/26, 1:05 PM
Commute Time Burden in Dakota County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Dakota 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 109 hours, about 4.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 23% less time on the road than the Nebraska average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 3.9 minutes.
Dakota County holds about 1.1% of Nebraska's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Dakota County would save about 44 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,351 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)
Dakota County
13.1 min
26.1 min
109 hrs/yr
$3,377
1,064
Nebraska
17.0 min
34.0 min
142 hrs/yr
$4,390
691
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
13.1
minutes to get to work in
Dakota County.
That's 42% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 4.9% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Dakota County
Car:
90.3%
Worked at Home:
4.9%
Other:
1.8%
Bicycle:
1.3%unusually high
Walked:
1.0%
Public Transportation:
0.5%
Motorcycle:
0.2%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Dakota County, versus 0.1% in Nebraska.
Biking is unusually common in Dakota County: 4.0 times more than the Nebraska average (1.3% vs 0.3%).
Commute Mode Trends in Dakota County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Dakota 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
Other
Bicycle
Walked
Public Transportation
Motorcycle
Taxi
2009
92.2%
2.8%
1.2%
0.5%
3.0%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2010
91.3%
3.2%
2.4%
0.3%
2.3%
0.4%
0.1%
0.0%
2011
90.9%
2.7%
3.2%
0.3%
2.4%
0.4%
0.0%
0.0%
2012
91.8%
1.9%
4.0%
0.2%
1.9%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
2013
94.2%
1.8%
2.5%
0.1%
1.3%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
2014
94.4%
1.9%
2.1%
0.1%
1.3%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
2015
93.9%
2.5%
1.1%
0.4%
1.9%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
2016
93.9%
3.2%
0.5%
0.3%
1.8%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
2017
93.0%
3.0%
0.3%
0.2%
3.3%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
2018
91.9%
3.6%
0.2%
0.2%
4.0%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
2019
91.8%
4.0%
0.2%
0.2%
3.4%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
2020
90.7%
6.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2.8%
0.4%
0.0%
0.0%
2021
89.9%
5.8%
0.3%
0.0%
3.0%
1.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2022
91.9%
5.8%
0.3%
0.2%
1.2%
0.6%
0.0%
0.0%
2023
90.0%
6.4%
1.3%
0.3%
1.1%
0.8%
0.1%
0.0%
2024
90.3%
4.9%
1.8%
1.3%
1.0%
0.5%
0.2%
0.0%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2014 at 94.4% and lowest in 2021 at 89.9%. Overall it fell from 92.2% in 2009 to 90.3% in 2024, down 1.9 percentage points.
Working from home gained the most ground in Dakota County: its share of workers rose from 2.8% in 2009 to 4.9% in 2024, up 2.1 percentage points.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.0% to 1.0% of workers (down 2.0 percentage points).
Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2019 release and has stayed ahead since.
Working from home peaked at 6.4% in 2023 and has since fallen back to 4.9%.
Commute Start Times in Dakota County
🧘Rush-Hour DodgersThe lowest share of rush-hour departures among Nebraska's 93 counties: only 40.7% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Dakota County?
The bars show when commuters in Dakota 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 Nebraska for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
12:00-4:59 AM
12:00-4:59 AMDakota County7.5%Nebraska4.3%
7.5%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMDakota County4.5%Nebraska3.2%
4.5%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMDakota County7.3%Nebraska5.1%
7.3%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMDakota County10.3%Nebraska7.7%
10.3%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMDakota County9.1%Nebraska10.5%
9.1%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMDakota County14.7%Nebraska15.5%
14.7%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMDakota County12.2%Nebraska16.7%
12.2%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMDakota County4.7%Nebraska10.5%
4.7%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMDakota County1.9%Nebraska4.4%
1.9%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMDakota County3.2%Nebraska4.8%
3.2%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMDakota County1.3%Nebraska2.4%
1.3%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMDakota County1.5%Nebraska1.4%
1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMDakota County16.3%Nebraska7.1%
16.3%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMDakota County5.5%Nebraska6.5%
5.5%
Dakota CountyNebraskaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Dakota County is 12:00-3:59 PM, when 16.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 7.1% across Nebraska. Early starts are more common than in Nebraska: 19.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Nebraska: 40.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 53.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (27.8%) 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 Dakota 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 Dakota 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 Dakota County next to Nebraska 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
Dakota County
Nebraska
United States
2009
7:36 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:40 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:41 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:43 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:32 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:36 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:38 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:29 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:31 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:30 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:26 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:26 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:23 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Dakota County were on the road by 7:23 AM, 13 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:36 AM). The shift is sharper than across Nebraska, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Dakota County now leave 15 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 Dakota County has moved 5 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Dakota County in the whole series.
How does Dakota County's commute time compare?
Metric
Dakota County
Nebraska
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
13.1 min
17.0 min
22.4 min
Departure Window
12:00 PM – 03:59 PM
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
4.9%
11.1%
15.0%
Walked
1.0%
2.3%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.5%
0.5%
3.2%
The average commute time in Dakota County is 13.1 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Nebraska.
The share of commuters using public transit is about the same as Nebraska. 1.0% commute by walking, lower than the 2.3% in Nebraska.
Dakota County, NE Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Dakota County, NE is the 3rd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 21,354 residents against a local median of 17,081. Dakota County, NE's work from home, at 4.9%, runs 38% below the 7.9% typical of the counties around it.
One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 13.1 min against a local median of 16.4 min, 20% below it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 20% below the local median it puts Dakota County, NE at the better end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 6.1% on work from home, so Dakota County, NE sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Dakota County, NE has the 5th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Dakota County, Nebraska.
How much does the average commute cost workers in Dakota County, Nebraska?
Commuters here spend an estimated 109 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,377 at a typical national wage. That's 23% less than the typical Nebraska commuter spends.
When is rush hour worst in Dakota County, Nebraska?
Traffic peaks between 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM in Dakota County, Nebraska. 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 do commute times compare across counties in Nebraska?
Among counties in Nebraska, the shortest average commutes are in Hooker County (7.4 min), Cherry County (8.0 min), Box Butte County (8.0 min). The longest are in Cass County (28.0 min), Banner County (27.2 min), Saunders County (26.9 min).