Thurston County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Thurston County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Thurston County spend about 27 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 113 hours, about 4.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% less time on the road than the Nebraska average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 3.4 minutes.

Thurston County holds about 0.3% of Nebraska's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Thurston County would save about 45 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,406 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)
Thurston County	13.6 min	27.2 min	113 hrs/yr	$3,514	424
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 13.6 minutes to get to work in Thurston County. That's 39% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 walking. About 3.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Thurston County

• Car: 91.0%
• Walked: 4.3%
• Worked at Home: 3.2% unusually low
• Other: 0.9%
• Public Transportation: 0.7%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Thurston County: 27688670008.0 times less than the Nebraska average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Thurston County: 642609756.6 times less than the Nebraska average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Working from home is unusually rare in Thurston County: 3.5 times less than the Nebraska average (3.2% vs 11.1%).

Biking is unusually rare in Thurston County: 8182959384.9 times less than the Nebraska average (0.0% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Thurston County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Walked	Worked at Home	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	83.7%	9.2%	4.2%	0.7%	1.4%	0.0%	0.7%	0.1%
2010	84.7%	9.1%	3.0%	0.8%	1.4%	0.0%	0.8%	0.2%
2011	84.4%	9.1%	4.2%	0.7%	1.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2012	84.3%	8.4%	3.5%	0.8%	2.3%	0.0%	0.5%	0.2%
2013	83.4%	8.0%	4.4%	1.0%	2.4%	0.0%	0.5%	0.3%
2014	83.0%	7.3%	5.6%	1.3%	2.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2015	83.8%	7.1%	5.5%	1.4%	1.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2016	85.4%	6.4%	4.3%	1.4%	1.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.5%
2017	85.6%	6.1%	5.6%	1.2%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	87.0%	5.3%	5.3%	0.9%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	86.6%	4.7%	5.5%	0.9%	2.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	87.6%	4.3%	4.9%	0.6%	2.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2021	86.9%	4.0%	5.6%	0.7%	2.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	86.3%	4.2%	5.4%	1.3%	2.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	87.6%	4.4%	5.2%	0.4%	2.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.0%	4.3%	3.2%	0.9%	0.7%	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 bottomed out in 2014 at 83.0%. Overall it rose from 83.7% in 2009 to 91.0% in 2024, up 7.3 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 9.2% to 4.3% of workers (down 4.9 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 5.6% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 3.2%.

Commute Start Times in Thurston County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Thurston County?

The bars show when commuters in Thurston 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 Thurston County3.7% Nebraska4.3%	3.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Thurston County3.3% Nebraska3.2%	3.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Thurston County3.2% Nebraska5.1%	3.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Thurston County4.8% Nebraska7.7%	4.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Thurston County10.0% Nebraska10.5%	10.0%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Thurston County14.9% Nebraska15.5%	14.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Thurston County28.8% Nebraska16.7%	28.8%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Thurston County13.1% Nebraska10.5%	13.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Thurston County2.4% Nebraska4.4%	2.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Thurston County1.0% Nebraska4.8%	1.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Thurston County2.1% Nebraska2.4%	2.1%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Thurston County0.5% Nebraska1.4%	0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Thurston County7.5% Nebraska7.1%	7.5%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Thurston County4.6% Nebraska6.5%	4.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Thurston County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 28.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.7% across Nebraska. Early starts are less common than in Nebraska: 10.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.6% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Nebraska: 66.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 53.1% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (15.9%) 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 Thurston 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 Thurston 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 Thurston 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.

• Thurston County
• Nebraska
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Thurston County	Nebraska	United States
2009	7:34 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:37 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:38 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:41 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:43 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:45 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:44 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:43 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:41 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:41 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:40 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:41 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Thurston County were on the road by 7:41 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:34 AM). That goes against the trend across Nebraska, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Thurston County now leave 3 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Thurston County's commute time compare?

Metric	Thurston County	Nebraska	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.6 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	3.2%	11.1%	15.0%
Walked	4.3%	2.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.7%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Thurston County is 13.6 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Nebraska.

0.7% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.5% in Nebraska. 4.3% commute by walking, higher than the 2.3% in Nebraska.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau