Hidalgo County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Hidalgo County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Hidalgo County spend about 24 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 101 hours, about 4.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 36% less time on the road than the New Mexico average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 6.7 minutes.

Hidalgo County holds about 0.2% of New Mexico's population but accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Hidalgo County would save about 40 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,251 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)
Hidalgo County	12.1 min	24.2 min	101 hrs/yr	$3,128	199
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 12.1 minutes to get to work in Hidalgo County. That's 46% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 78% of counties in New Mexico

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 3.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Hidalgo County

• Car: 92.8%
• Worked at Home: 3.6% unusually low
• Walked: 2.9%
• Other: 0.7%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Hidalgo County, versus 0.1% in New Mexico.

Public transit is essentially absent in Hidalgo County, versus 0.6% in New Mexico.

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

Working from home is unusually rare in Hidalgo County: 3.4 times less than the New Mexico average (3.6% vs 12.2%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Hidalgo County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	88.7%	4.7%	5.7%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	89.7%	3.7%	6.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	89.0%	3.5%	6.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	91.2%	4.4%	4.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	90.9%	4.6%	4.1%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	88.9%	6.1%	4.0%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	89.4%	5.9%	3.8%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	90.2%	5.7%	3.3%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	87.6%	5.8%	4.1%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.6%
2018	86.4%	6.9%	3.9%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.9%
2019	87.7%	5.9%	3.4%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	1.8%
2020	88.3%	6.6%	3.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	1.0%
2021	87.7%	6.7%	3.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	1.1%
2022	89.9%	5.5%	3.8%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	90.9%	4.8%	3.1%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	92.8%	3.6%	2.9%	0.7%	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 bottomed out in 2018 at 86.4%. Overall it rose from 88.7% in 2009 to 92.8% in 2024, up 4.1 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 3 releases.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 5.7% to 2.9% of workers (down 2.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2012 release and has stayed ahead since.

Working from home peaked at 6.9% in 2018 and has since fallen back to 3.6%.

Commute Start Times in Hidalgo County

• 😴 Sleeping InThe 2nd-highest share of 9 AM-or-later starts among New Mexico's 33 counties: 29.3% of commuters leave at 9 AM or later.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Hidalgo County?

The bars show when commuters in Hidalgo 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	12:00-4:59 AM Hidalgo County8.3% New Mexico4.6%	8.3%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Hidalgo County8.5% New Mexico3.5%	8.5%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Hidalgo County2.7% New Mexico5.1%	2.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Hidalgo County6.1% New Mexico8.7%	6.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Hidalgo County7.8% New Mexico10.1%	7.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Hidalgo County14.9% New Mexico15.5%	14.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Hidalgo County14.3% New Mexico14.8%	14.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Hidalgo County6.1% New Mexico11.1%	6.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Hidalgo County2.1% New Mexico4.5%	2.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Hidalgo County3.8% New Mexico6.0%	3.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Hidalgo County6.0% New Mexico3.1%	6.0%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Hidalgo County0.0% New Mexico1.3%	0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Hidalgo County6.9% New Mexico6.3%	6.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Hidalgo County12.7% New Mexico5.5%	12.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Hidalgo County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.5% across New Mexico. Early starts are more common than in New Mexico: 19.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in New Mexico: 43.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.5% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (29.3%) 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 Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo 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.

• Hidalgo County
• New Mexico
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Hidalgo County	New Mexico	United States
2009	7:27 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:17 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:11 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:20 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:29 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:27 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:40 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:38 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:31 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:29 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:30 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:34 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Hidalgo County were on the road by 7:34 AM, 6 minutes later than in 2009 (7:27 AM). That goes against the trend across New Mexico, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Hidalgo County now leave 4 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 Hidalgo County has moved 3 minutes later.

How does Hidalgo County's commute time compare?

Metric	Hidalgo County	New Mexico	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	12.1 min	18.8 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	3.6%	12.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.9%	1.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Hidalgo County is 12.1 minutes, shorter than the 18.8 minutes in New Mexico.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in New Mexico. 2.9% commute by walking, higher than the 1.9% in New Mexico.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau