Colfax County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

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

You 9/24/26, 8:05 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:05 PM

Commute Time Burden in Colfax County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Colfax County spend about 23 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 95 hours, about 4.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 39% less time on the road than the New Mexico average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 7.4 minutes.

Colfax County holds about 0.6% of New Mexico's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Colfax County would save about 38 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,181 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)
Colfax County	11.4 min	22.8 min	95 hrs/yr	$2,951	340
New Mexico	18.8 min	37.7 min	157 hrs/yr	$4,866	619
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: New Mexico Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in New Mexico

De Baca County (7.9 min)
Quay County (8.0 min)
Union County (8.3 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in New Mexico

Torrance County (36.5 min)
Mora County (30.1 min)
Valencia County (30.1 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Colfax County

Click a county to open it Explore the map →

Average commute time

On average, it takes 11.4 minutes to get to work in Colfax County. That's 49% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the top 5 fastest counties in New Mexico

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 12.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Colfax County

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Colfax County, versus 0.1% in New Mexico.

Biking is essentially absent in Colfax County, versus 0.5% in New Mexico.

Commute Mode Trends in Colfax County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Colfax 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	Other	Walked	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	92.6%	3.7%	0.0%	2.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.9%
2010	91.7%	2.7%	0.1%	4.0%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	1.0%
2011	88.2%	4.4%	0.7%	5.0%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	1.0%
2012	87.9%	4.4%	0.7%	5.0%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.9%
2013	87.4%	5.6%	0.7%	4.9%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2014	88.3%	4.5%	1.0%	5.0%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	90.9%	4.8%	0.6%	2.8%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	91.6%	4.5%	0.0%	2.9%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	91.3%	4.6%	0.1%	3.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2018	91.4%	4.4%	0.5%	3.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2019	89.8%	6.6%	0.5%	2.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2020	86.5%	10.5%	0.4%	2.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2021	87.4%	9.9%	0.5%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2022	82.5%	11.1%	3.5%	2.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	81.8%	13.6%	2.5%	1.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	83.3%	12.0%	2.2%	1.6%	0.8%	0.1%	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 2023 at 81.8%. Overall it fell from 92.6% in 2009 to 83.3% in 2024, down 9.3 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Colfax County: its share of workers rose from 3.7% in 2009 to 12.0% in 2024, up 8.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.8% to 1.6% of workers (down 1.2 percentage points).

Public transit overtook riding a motorcycle to become the 5th most common choice in the 2023 release and has stayed ahead since.

Working from home peaked at 13.6% in 2023 and has since fallen back to 12.0%.

Commute Start Times in Colfax County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Colfax County?

The bars show when commuters in Colfax 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 New Mexico for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		3.5%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.5%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		16.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.1%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.8%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		11.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.5%

Colfax County New Mexico Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Colfax County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 16.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across New Mexico. Early starts are more common than in New Mexico: 14.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush looks much like New Mexico's: 50.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.5%) 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 Colfax 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 Colfax 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 Colfax County next to New Mexico 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	Colfax County	New Mexico	United States
2009	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:43 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:44 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:41 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:34 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:36 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:32 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:30 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:36 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:36 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:40 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Colfax County were on the road by 7:40 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:42 AM). New Mexico followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Colfax County now leave 2 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 Colfax County has moved 9 minutes later.

How does Colfax County's commute time compare?

Metric	Colfax County	New Mexico	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	11.4 min	18.8 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.0%	12.2%	15.0%
Walked	1.6%	1.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.8%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Colfax County is 11.4 minutes, shorter than the 18.8 minutes in New Mexico.

0.8% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.6% in New Mexico. 1.6% commute by walking, lower than the 1.9% in New Mexico.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Colfax County, NM Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Colfax County, NM is the 3rd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 12,320 residents against a local median of 4,149. The measure that sets Colfax County, NM apart most is one-way commute: 11.4 min, 36% below the local median of 17.7 min. That is the better end of the local range on this measure.

The counties themselves spread 18.2 min on one-way commute, so Colfax County, NM sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Colfax County, NM has the lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Colfax County, NM	12,320	11.4 min #1/6	12.0% #3/6	7:40 AM #4/6
Mora County, NM	4,149	30.1 min	8.6%	7:23 AM
Las Animas County, CO	14,413	12.2 min	11.5%	7:48 AM
Taos County, NM	34,542	21.1 min	19.7%	7:58 AM
Costilla County, CO	3,607	17.7 min	16.1%	7:38 AM
Harding County, NM	741	11.9 min	2.8%	7:28 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Colfax County, New Mexico.

Is living in Colfax County, New Mexico good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 95 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $2,951 at a typical national wage. That's 39% less than the typical New Mexico commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Colfax County, New Mexico?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Colfax County, New Mexico. 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.

Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in New Mexico?

Among counties in New Mexico, the shortest average commutes are in De Baca County (7.9 min), Quay County (8.0 min), Union County (8.3 min). The longest are in Torrance County (36.5 min), Mora County (30.1 min), Valencia County (30.1 min).