Garfield County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Garfield County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Garfield County spend about 16 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 68 hours, about 2.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 52% less time on the road than the Nebraska average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 8.9 minutes.

Garfield County holds about 0.1% of Nebraska's population but accounts for roughly 0.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Garfield County would save about 27 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $838 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)
Garfield County	8.1 min	16.2 min	68 hrs/yr	$2,095	268
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.

Commute Time Map: Nebraska Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 8.1 minutes to get to work in Garfield County. That's 64% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the top 5 fastest counties in Nebraska

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 walking. About 2.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Garfield County

• Car: 81.8%
• Walked: 13.3% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 2.5% unusually low
• Bicycle: 1.3% unusually high
• Other: 0.6%
• Motorcycle: 0.6% unusually high
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Garfield County: 6.1 times more than the Nebraska average (0.6% vs 0.1%).

Walking is unusually common in Garfield County: 5.7 times more than the Nebraska average (13.3% vs 2.3%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Garfield County: 176993500.2 times less than the Nebraska average (0.0% vs 0.5%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Garfield County, versus 0.1% in Nebraska.

Working from home is unusually rare in Garfield County: 4.4 times less than the Nebraska average (2.5% vs 11.1%).

Biking is unusually common in Garfield County: 3.8 times more than the Nebraska average (1.3% vs 0.3%).

Garfield County stands out for active commuting: 14.6% of workers walk or bike to work, 5.5 times the Nebraska average of 2.7%.

Commute Mode Trends in Garfield County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Garfield 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
• Walked
• Worked at Home
• Bicycle
• Motorcycle
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Taxi

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Walked	Worked at Home	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi
2009	76.1%	10.5%	8.8%	1.4%	0.0%	3.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	76.5%	9.0%	9.0%	1.6%	0.0%	3.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	77.9%	8.9%	9.5%	0.8%	0.0%	3.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	79.9%	8.4%	7.8%	0.7%	0.0%	3.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	84.0%	6.6%	7.8%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%
2014	79.6%	6.4%	12.2%	0.8%	0.0%	0.5%	0.6%	0.0%
2015	80.2%	7.6%	10.2%	1.1%	0.0%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%
2016	78.9%	7.6%	10.6%	1.3%	0.0%	1.0%	0.5%	0.0%
2017	77.7%	8.7%	11.0%	1.2%	0.0%	0.8%	0.5%	0.0%
2018	79.8%	9.3%	9.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	80.6%	9.5%	9.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	79.6%	11.3%	8.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	84.8%	10.5%	4.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	84.1%	12.5%	3.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	82.6%	12.8%	3.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	81.8%	13.3%	2.5%	1.3%	0.6%	0.6%	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 84.8%. Overall it rose from 76.1% in 2009 to 81.8% in 2024, up 5.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Walking gained the most ground in Garfield County: its share of workers rose from 10.5% in 2009 to 13.3% in 2024, up 2.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 8.8% to 2.5% of workers (down 6.3 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Garfield County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Garfield County?

The bars show when commuters in Garfield 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 AM Garfield County1.3% Nebraska4.3%	1.3%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Garfield County0.0% Nebraska3.2%	0.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Garfield County7.5% Nebraska5.1%	7.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Garfield County3.0% Nebraska7.7%	3.0%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Garfield County12.9% Nebraska10.5%	12.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Garfield County9.6% Nebraska15.5%	9.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Garfield County31.5% Nebraska16.7%	31.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Garfield County9.6% Nebraska10.5%	9.6%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Garfield County7.4% Nebraska4.4%	7.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Garfield County6.3% Nebraska4.8%	6.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Garfield County2.0% Nebraska2.4%	2.0%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Garfield County0.0% Nebraska1.4%	0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Garfield County1.9% Nebraska7.1%	1.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Garfield County7.1% Nebraska6.5%	7.1%

Garfield County Nebraska Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Garfield County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 31.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.7% across Nebraska. Early starts are less common than in Nebraska: 8.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.6% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Nebraska: 63.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 53.1% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.3%) 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 Garfield 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 Garfield 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 Garfield 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.

• Garfield County
• Nebraska
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Garfield County	Nebraska	United States
2009	7:51 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:53 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:54 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:49 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:49 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:51 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:47 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:47 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:49 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:46 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:47 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:49 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:49 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:44 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:46 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:45 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Garfield County were on the road by 7:45 AM, 6 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:51 AM). The shift is sharper than across Nebraska, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Garfield County now leave 7 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 Garfield County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Garfield County's commute time compare?

Metric	Garfield County	Nebraska	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	8.1 min	17.0 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	2.5%	11.1%	15.0%
Walked	13.3%	2.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Garfield County is 8.1 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Nebraska.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in Nebraska. 13.3% commute by walking, higher than the 2.3% in Nebraska.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau