Rio Arriba County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Rio Arriba County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Rio Arriba County spend about 56 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 234 hours, about 9.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 49% more time on the road than the New Mexico average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 9.3 minutes.

Rio Arriba County holds about 1.9% of New Mexico's population but accounts for roughly 2.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Rio Arriba County would save about 94 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,905 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)
Rio Arriba County	28.1 min	56.2 min	234 hrs/yr	$7,262	169
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 28.1 minutes to get to work in Rio Arriba County. That's 25% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 5 slowest 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 10.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Rio Arriba County

• Car: 86.1%
• Worked at Home: 10.2%
• Walked: 2.8%
• Public Transportation: 0.6%
• Other: 0.3%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Rio Arriba County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	91.4%	3.5%	2.1%	1.9%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	91.0%	4.2%	2.0%	1.5%	0.9%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2011	90.9%	4.3%	1.6%	1.4%	1.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2012	90.4%	4.3%	1.5%	2.1%	1.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	91.2%	3.7%	1.4%	1.7%	1.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	91.3%	3.7%	1.1%	1.5%	2.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	91.8%	3.3%	1.0%	1.6%	2.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	91.8%	3.9%	1.1%	1.6%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	92.7%	3.9%	0.9%	1.3%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	87.7%	7.2%	3.4%	1.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	92.9%	3.9%	0.9%	0.9%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	91.8%	3.8%	2.2%	0.8%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	91.0%	4.6%	2.0%	1.0%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2022	87.5%	7.9%	2.5%	0.7%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	86.1%	9.3%	2.5%	0.7%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	86.1%	10.2%	2.8%	0.6%	0.3%	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 peaked in 2019 at 92.9%. Overall it fell from 91.4% in 2009 to 86.1% in 2024, down 5.3 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Rio Arriba County: its share of workers rose from 3.5% in 2009 to 10.2% in 2024, up 6.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.9% to 0.6% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Rio Arriba County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Rio Arriba County?

The bars show when commuters in Rio Arriba 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 Rio Arriba County3.0% New Mexico4.6%	3.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Rio Arriba County2.8% New Mexico3.5%	2.8%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Rio Arriba County5.9% New Mexico5.1%	5.9%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Rio Arriba County12.4% New Mexico8.7%	12.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Rio Arriba County13.4% New Mexico10.1%	13.4%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Rio Arriba County19.1% New Mexico15.5%	19.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Rio Arriba County19.0% New Mexico14.8%	19.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Rio Arriba County7.3% New Mexico11.1%	7.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Rio Arriba County3.5% New Mexico4.5%	3.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Rio Arriba County4.1% New Mexico6.0%	4.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Rio Arriba County0.6% New Mexico3.1%	0.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Rio Arriba County1.3% New Mexico1.3%	1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Rio Arriba County4.4% New Mexico6.3%	4.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Rio Arriba County3.2% New Mexico5.5%	3.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Rio Arriba County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 19.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.5% across New Mexico. Early starts are less common than in New Mexico: 11.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in New Mexico: 58.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.5% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (13.7%) 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 Rio Arriba 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 Rio Arriba 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 Rio Arriba 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.

• Rio Arriba County
• New Mexico
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Rio Arriba County	New Mexico	United States
2009	7:24 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:23 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:31 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:30 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:34 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:37 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:28 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Rio Arriba County were on the road by 7:20 AM, 4 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:24 AM). The shift is sharper than across New Mexico, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Rio Arriba County now leave 18 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 Rio Arriba County has moved 8 minutes earlier.

How does Rio Arriba County's commute time compare?

Metric	Rio Arriba County	New Mexico	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	28.1 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	10.2%	12.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.8%	1.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.6%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Rio Arriba County is 28.1 minutes, longer than the 18.8 minutes in New Mexico.

The share of commuters using public transit is about the same as New Mexico. 2.8% commute by walking, higher than the 1.9% in New Mexico.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau