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Quay County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Quay 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, 8:33 PM
How long is the round-trip commute in Quay County?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:33 PM

Commute Time Burden in Quay County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Quay County spend about 16 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 66 hours, about 2.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 58% less time on the road than the New Mexico average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 10.9 minutes.

Quay County holds about 0.4% of New Mexico's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Quay County would save about 27 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $823 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)
Quay County 8.0 min 15.9 min 66 hrs/yr $2,057 127
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
  1. De Baca County (7.9 min)
  2. Quay County (8.0 min)
  3. Union County (8.3 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in New Mexico
  1. Torrance County (36.5 min)
  2. Mora County (30.1 min)
  3. Valencia County (30.1 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Quay County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 8.0 minutes to get to work in Quay County. That's 64% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the top 3 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 6.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Quay County

  • Car: 87.4%
  • Worked at Home: 6.4%
  • Walked: 4.9%
  • Bicycle: 0.7%
  • Other: 0.6%
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Public transit is unusually rare in Quay County: 9783153262.6 times less than the New Mexico average (0.0% vs 0.6%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Quay County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Quay 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 Bicycle Other Public Transportation Taxi Motorcycle
2009 89.5% 5.8% 3.9% 0.0% 0.7% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2010 87.4% 5.2% 6.7% 0.2% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2011 87.0% 5.9% 5.9% 0.5% 0.6% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2012 88.8% 6.8% 2.7% 0.4% 1.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2013 90.1% 6.1% 2.5% 0.5% 0.8% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2014 89.4% 5.1% 3.2% 0.9% 0.9% 0.1% 0.0% 0.4%
2015 89.2% 7.5% 1.0% 0.8% 1.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.2%
2016 89.0% 8.2% 1.1% 0.6% 0.6% 0.2% 0.0% 0.3%
2017 88.6% 8.3% 1.7% 0.6% 0.2% 0.3% 0.0% 0.3%
2018 89.5% 6.6% 2.1% 1.0% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.4%
2019 90.5% 5.9% 2.5% 0.7% 0.2% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2020 93.1% 3.8% 2.7% 0.0% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2021 93.3% 2.6% 3.5% 0.0% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 89.3% 5.1% 4.4% 0.7% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 89.8% 5.1% 3.1% 1.0% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 87.4% 6.4% 4.9% 0.7% 0.6% 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 was highest in 2021 at 93.3% and lowest in 2011 at 87.0%. Overall it fell from 89.5% in 2009 to 87.4% in 2024, down 2.1 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Walking gained the most ground in Quay County: its share of workers rose from 3.9% in 2009 to 4.9% in 2024, up 1.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

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

Working from home peaked at 8.3% in 2017 and has since fallen back to 6.4%.

Commute Start Times in Quay County

  • Rush-Hour RegularsThe 3rd-highest share of rush-hour departures among New Mexico's 33 counties: 62.3% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Quay County?

The bars show when commuters in Quay 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
5.0%
5:00-5:29 AM
2.5%
5:30-5:59 AM
5.4%
6:00-6:29 AM
3.1%
6:30-6:59 AM
8.4%
7:00-7:29 AM
18.5%
7:30-7:59 AM
26.7%
8:00-8:29 AM
8.8%
8:30-8:59 AM
2.3%
9:00-9:59 AM
2.1%
10:00-10:59 AM
4.1%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM
2.3%
4:00-11:59 PM
10.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Quay County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 26.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across New Mexico. Early starts are about as common as in New Mexico: 13.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in New Mexico: 62.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.5% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.3%) 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 Quay 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 Quay 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 Quay 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 Quay County New Mexico United States
2009 7:42 AM 7:37 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:42 AM 7:37 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:44 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:40 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:45 AM 7:36 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:46 AM 7:37 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:39 AM 7:37 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:38 AM 7:37 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:37 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:39 AM 7:36 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:44 AM 7:36 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:51 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:54 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:47 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:41 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:38 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Quay County were on the road by 7:38 AM, 4 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:42 AM). New Mexico followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Quay County now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Quay County has moved 6 minutes earlier.

How does Quay County's commute time compare?

Metric Quay County New Mexico US Average
Avg. Commute Time 8.0 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 6.4% 12.2% 15.0%
Walked 4.9% 1.9% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 0.6% 3.2%

The average commute time in Quay County is 8.0 minutes, shorter than the 18.8 minutes in New Mexico.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in New Mexico. 4.9% commute by walking, higher than the 1.9% in New Mexico.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Quay County, NM Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Quay County, NM is typical in size for this group, 8,564 residents against a local median of 9,731, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. The measure that sets Quay County, NM apart most is work from home: 6.4%, 131% above the local median of 2.8%.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 8.0 min against a local median of 13.7 min, 42% below it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 42% below the local median it puts Quay County, NM at the better end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 4.6% on work from home, so Quay County, NM sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Quay County, NM has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Quay County, NM 8,564 8.0 min #1/6 6.4% #2/6 7:38 AM #5/6
Curry County, NM 47,638 13.3 min 3.7% 7:21 AM
Harding County, NM 741 11.9 min 2.8% 7:28 AM
Deaf Smith County, TX 18,460 13.7 min 2.5% 7:39 AM
Parmer County, TX 9,731 15.3 min 2.6% 7:36 AM
Oldham County, TX 2,249 28.2 min 7.2% 7:26 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Quay County, New Mexico.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Quay County, New Mexico?

Commuters here spend an estimated 66 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $2,057 at a typical national wage. That's 58% less than the typical New Mexico commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Quay County, New Mexico?

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

How common is public transit use in Quay County, New Mexico?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 0.6% in New Mexico, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

Which counties in New Mexico have the fastest and slowest commutes?

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).