Saunders County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Saunders 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, 8:21 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in Saunders County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:21 PM

Commute Time Burden in Saunders County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Saunders County spend about 54 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 224 hours, about 9.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 58% more time on the road than the Nebraska average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 9.9 minutes.

Saunders County holds about 1.2% of Nebraska's population but accounts for roughly 1.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Saunders County would save about 90 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,778 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)
Saunders County	26.9 min	53.8 min	224 hrs/yr	$6,946	936
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

Saunders County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 26.9 minutes to get to work in Saunders County. That's 20% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 3 slowest counties in Nebraska

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Saunders County

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

Commute Mode Trends in Saunders County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Saunders 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	Public Transportation	Other	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	87.8%	7.2%	3.9%	0.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2010	89.4%	6.4%	3.2%	0.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2011	89.3%	6.8%	2.8%	0.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2012	89.3%	6.8%	2.7%	0.2%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	90.4%	6.1%	2.5%	0.2%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	90.5%	5.9%	2.6%	0.2%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2015	90.4%	5.5%	2.9%	0.2%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	92.1%	4.1%	2.7%	0.0%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	92.8%	3.9%	2.3%	0.0%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	92.2%	4.3%	2.4%	0.0%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	92.8%	4.9%	1.6%	0.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	91.7%	5.7%	2.0%	0.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	90.7%	7.0%	1.9%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	89.1%	7.9%	2.2%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	86.3%	9.0%	3.1%	0.7%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	84.4%	9.9%	4.0%	0.8%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2017 at 92.8%. Overall it fell from 87.8% in 2009 to 84.4% in 2024, down 3.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Saunders County: its share of workers rose from 7.2% in 2009 to 9.9% in 2024, up 2.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit overtook biking to become the 4th most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Saunders County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Saunders County?

The bars show when commuters in Saunders 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		4.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		11.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		13.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		20.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		2.9%
9:00-9:59 AM		3.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		3.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		4.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Saunders County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 20.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.5% across Nebraska. Early starts are more common than in Nebraska: 16.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.6% there. The morning rush looks much like Nebraska's: 54.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 53.1% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (14.7%) 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 Saunders 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 Saunders 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 Saunders 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	Saunders County	Nebraska	United States
2009	7:21 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:22 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:22 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:19 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:20 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:18 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:17 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:15 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:23 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:16 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:12 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:13 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Saunders County were on the road by 7:13 AM, 9 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:21 AM). The shift is sharper than across Nebraska, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Saunders County now leave 25 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 Saunders County has moved 9 minutes earlier.

How does Saunders County's commute time compare?

Metric	Saunders County	Nebraska	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	26.9 min	17.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 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	9.9%	11.1%	15.0%
Walked	4.0%	2.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.8%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Saunders County is 26.9 minutes, longer than the 17.0 minutes in Nebraska.

0.8% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.5% in Nebraska. 4.0% commute by walking, higher than the 2.3% in Nebraska.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Saunders County, NE Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Saunders County, NE is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 23,048 residents against a local median of 37,351. The measure that sets Saunders County, NE apart most is one-way commute: 26.9 min, 46% above the local median of 18.4 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

The counties themselves spread 8.6 min on one-way commute, so Saunders County, NE sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Saunders County, NE has the 6th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Saunders County, NE	23,048	26.9 min #6/6	9.9% #4/6	7:12 AM #1/6
Dodge County, NE	37,351	13.6 min	4.1%	7:26 AM
Lancaster County, NE	326,713	17.4 min	11.6%	7:45 AM
Douglas County, NE	590,696	18.4 min	16.1%	7:43 AM
Butler County, NE	8,424	22.3 min	8.7%	7:21 AM
Washington County, NE	21,106	21.7 min	14.3%	7:24 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Saunders County, Nebraska.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Saunders County, Nebraska?

Commuters here spend an estimated 224 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,946 at a typical national wage. That's 58% more than the typical Nebraska commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Saunders County, Nebraska?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Saunders County, Nebraska. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among 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).