Kearney County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Kearney County, Nebraska: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 12:23 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Kearney County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 12:23 PM

Commute Time Burden in Kearney County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Kearney County spend about 42 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 175 hours, about 7.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 24% more time on the road than the Nebraska average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 4.0 minutes.

Kearney County holds about 0.3% of Nebraska's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Kearney County would save about 70 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,172 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)
Kearney County	21.0 min	42.0 min	175 hrs/yr	$5,430	921
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

Fastest commutes among counties in Nebraska

Hooker County (7.4 min)
Cherry County (8.0 min)
Box Butte County (8.0 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Nebraska

Cass County (28.0 min)
Banner County (27.2 min)
Saunders County (26.9 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Kearney County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 21.0 minutes to get to work in Kearney County. That's 6% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 91% of 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 8.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Kearney County

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

Commute Mode Trends in Kearney County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Kearney 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	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Taxi
2009	87.2%	6.8%	4.9%	0.3%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	88.5%	5.8%	4.3%	0.4%	0.4%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%
2011	89.2%	4.9%	3.8%	0.3%	1.0%	0.2%	0.5%	0.0%
2012	90.3%	4.9%	2.9%	0.0%	0.8%	0.2%	1.0%	0.0%
2013	89.9%	5.6%	2.7%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%	1.2%	0.0%
2014	91.5%	3.9%	2.3%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%	1.6%	0.0%
2015	90.8%	4.7%	2.2%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	1.6%	0.0%
2016	89.9%	6.8%	2.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.0%	0.0%
2017	89.7%	6.3%	3.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%
2018	90.4%	4.6%	4.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%
2019	89.4%	6.1%	4.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	89.3%	5.5%	4.5%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	88.5%	6.1%	4.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	88.8%	6.6%	3.4%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	89.4%	7.7%	1.7%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	89.4%	8.0%	1.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2014 at 91.5%. Overall it rose from 87.2% in 2009 to 89.4% in 2024, up 2.2 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Kearney County: its share of workers rose from 6.8% in 2009 to 8.0% in 2024, up 1.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 1.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 4.9% to 1.3% of workers (down 3.6 percentage points).

Biking peaked at 1.6% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 0.2%.

Commute Start Times in Kearney County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Kearney County?

The bars show when commuters in Kearney 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		1.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.7%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.3%
6:00-6:29 AM		10.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		17.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		18.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		12.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.6%
10:00-10:59 AM		0.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		4.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Kearney County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.7% across Nebraska. Early starts are less common than in Nebraska: 9.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.6% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Nebraska: 57.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 53.1% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.8%) 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 Kearney 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 Kearney 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 Kearney 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	Kearney County	Nebraska	United States
2009	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:28 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:29 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:23 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:28 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:32 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:38 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:35 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:32 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:37 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:38 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:37 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Kearney County were on the road by 7:35 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:33 AM). That goes against the trend across Nebraska, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Kearney County now leave 3 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 Kearney County has moved 3 minutes later.

How does Kearney County's commute time compare?

Metric	Kearney County	Nebraska	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.0 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	8.0%	11.1%	15.0%
Walked	1.3%	2.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Kearney County is 21.0 minutes, longer than the 17.0 minutes in Nebraska.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in Nebraska. 1.3% commute by walking, lower than the 2.3% in Nebraska.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Kearney County, NE Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Kearney County, NE is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 6,713 residents against a local median of 9,009. The measure that sets Kearney County, NE apart most is work from home: 8.0%, 73% above the local median of 4.6%.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 21.0 min against a local median of 12.7 min, 66% above it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 66% above the local median it puts Kearney County, NE at the weaker end of the local range. The counties themselves sit within 1.3% of each other on work from home, a tighter band than the gap between any of them and Kearney County, NE, which makes it a genuine outlier here rather than one end of a wide local spread. Kearney County, NE has the highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Kearney County, NE	6,713	21.0 min #6/6	8.0% #1/6	7:35 AM #5/6
Franklin County, NE	2,846	15.4 min	4.3%	7:33 AM
Buffalo County, NE	50,579	12.2 min	4.7%	7:45 AM
Adams County, NE	31,052	12.7 min	4.6%	7:33 AM
Phelps County, NE	9,009	9.0 min	5.6%	7:32 AM
Webster County, NE	3,360	20.5 min	4.6%	7:21 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Kearney County, Nebraska.

Is living in Kearney County, Nebraska good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 175 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,430 at a typical national wage. That's 24% more than the typical Nebraska commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Kearney County, Nebraska?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Kearney 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.

Which counties in Nebraska have the fastest and slowest commutes?

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).