Howard County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Howard County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Howard County spend about 52 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 215 hours, about 8.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 52% more time on the road than the Nebraska average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 8.8 minutes.

Howard County holds about 0.3% of Nebraska's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Howard County would save about 86 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,663 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)
Howard County	25.8 min	51.5 min	215 hrs/yr	$6,658	392
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 25.8 minutes to get to work in Howard County. That's 15% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 5 slowest counties in Nebraska

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 8.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Howard County

• Car: 87.1%
• Worked at Home: 8.6%
• Other: 2.2%
• Walked: 2.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Howard County, versus 0.1% in Nebraska.

Public transit is unusually rare in Howard County: 14.9 times less than the Nebraska average (0.0% vs 0.5%).

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

Biking is essentially absent in Howard County, versus 0.3% in Nebraska.

Commute Mode Trends in Howard County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	86.7%	9.2%	0.7%	2.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.7%
2010	87.3%	8.6%	0.1%	3.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%	0.5%
2011	88.6%	7.5%	0.1%	2.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%	0.6%
2012	88.0%	9.3%	0.2%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%	0.5%
2013	88.4%	8.4%	0.7%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%	0.5%
2014	88.0%	9.4%	0.8%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%	0.1%
2015	85.5%	11.4%	0.9%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	84.1%	11.8%	0.9%	2.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.5%
2017	85.5%	10.4%	0.7%	2.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%
2018	84.8%	10.6%	0.1%	3.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2019	88.1%	7.3%	0.1%	3.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2020	89.6%	6.1%	0.2%	3.2%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2021	90.3%	6.4%	0.4%	2.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	89.7%	6.8%	0.5%	2.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	88.3%	7.8%	1.6%	2.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	87.1%	8.6%	2.2%	2.1%	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 90.3% and lowest in 2016 at 84.1%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 86.7% in 2009 and 87.1% in 2024. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Biking lost the most ground, falling from 0.7% to 0.0% of workers (down 0.7 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 11.8% in 2016 and has since fallen back to 8.6%.

Commute Start Times in Howard County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Howard County?

The bars show when commuters in Howard 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 Howard County10.0% Nebraska4.3%	10.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Howard County5.3% Nebraska3.2%	5.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Howard County3.3% Nebraska5.1%	3.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Howard County5.3% Nebraska7.7%	5.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Howard County12.8% Nebraska10.5%	12.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Howard County18.6% Nebraska15.5%	18.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Howard County23.4% Nebraska16.7%	23.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Howard County7.9% Nebraska10.5%	7.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Howard County1.5% Nebraska4.4%	1.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Howard County2.0% Nebraska4.8%	2.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Howard County2.5% Nebraska2.4%	2.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Howard County0.1% Nebraska1.4%	0.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Howard County1.8% Nebraska7.1%	1.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Howard County5.3% Nebraska6.5%	5.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Howard County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 23.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.7% across Nebraska. Early starts are more common than in Nebraska: 18.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.6% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Nebraska: 62.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 53.1% there. About 1 in 8 commuters (11.8%) 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 Howard 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 Howard 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 Howard 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.

• Howard County
• Nebraska
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Howard County	Nebraska	United States
2009	7:27 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:27 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:23 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:19 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:18 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:17 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:14 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:17 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:20 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:24 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:20 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:16 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:16 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:18 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Howard County were on the road by 7:21 AM, 6 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:27 AM). The shift is sharper than across Nebraska, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Howard County now leave 17 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 Howard County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Howard County's commute time compare?

Metric	Howard County	Nebraska	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	25.8 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.6%	11.1%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	2.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Howard County is 25.8 minutes, longer than the 17.0 minutes in Nebraska.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in Nebraska. 2.1% commute by walking, lower than the 2.3% in Nebraska.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau