Kay County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Kay County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Kay County spend about 26 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 108 hours, about 4.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 32% less time on the road than the Oklahoma average of 19.0 minutes each way, a difference of 6.0 minutes.

Kay County holds about 1.1% of Oklahoma's population but accounts for roughly 0.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Kay County would save about 43 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,340 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)
Kay County	13.0 min	25.9 min	108 hrs/yr	$3,349	616
Oklahoma	19.0 min	37.9 min	158 hrs/yr	$4,901	941
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: Oklahoma Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 13.0 minutes to get to work in Kay County. That's 42% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 88% of counties in Oklahoma

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 3.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Kay County

• Car: 93.3%
• Worked at Home: 3.7%
• Walked: 1.5%
• Taxi: 0.9% unusually high
• Other: 0.5%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is essentially absent in Kay County, versus 0.3% in Oklahoma.

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Kay County: 7.0 times more than the Oklahoma average (0.9% vs 0.1%).

Biking is unusually rare in Kay County: 3.2 times less than the Oklahoma average (0.1% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Kay County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Taxi	Other	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Public Transportation
2009	93.3%	2.5%	2.3%	0.1%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.7%
2010	93.0%	2.7%	2.3%	0.1%	0.7%	0.3%	0.2%	0.7%
2011	93.8%	2.2%	2.3%	0.1%	0.4%	0.3%	0.3%	0.5%
2012	94.3%	2.1%	1.9%	0.1%	0.5%	0.4%	0.3%	0.5%
2013	93.7%	2.0%	2.7%	0.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.4%	0.4%
2014	93.2%	2.1%	2.7%	0.2%	0.9%	0.2%	0.3%	0.4%
2015	93.2%	1.8%	3.0%	0.2%	1.0%	0.2%	0.3%	0.3%
2016	93.1%	2.0%	3.0%	0.2%	1.1%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2017	93.1%	2.2%	3.0%	0.2%	1.1%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2018	93.1%	2.8%	2.5%	0.1%	1.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	93.3%	3.2%	2.2%	0.1%	0.6%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	93.1%	3.6%	1.9%	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	92.5%	3.9%	1.7%	0.9%	0.4%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	92.3%	3.9%	1.6%	0.9%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	92.9%	3.4%	1.6%	0.9%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	93.3%	3.7%	1.5%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2012 at 94.3% and lowest in 2022 at 92.3%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 93.3% in 2009 and 93.3% in 2024. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Kay County: its share of workers rose from 2.5% in 2009 to 3.7% in 2024, up 1.2 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.3% to 1.5% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Taking a taxi overtook riding a motorcycle to become the 4th most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Kay County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Kay County?

The bars show when commuters in Kay 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 Oklahoma for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Kay County6.9% Oklahoma5.3%	6.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Kay County5.3% Oklahoma3.7%	5.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Kay County5.9% Oklahoma4.8%	5.9%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Kay County6.6% Oklahoma8.5%	6.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Kay County11.2% Oklahoma10.0%	11.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Kay County12.7% Oklahoma15.2%	12.7%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Kay County16.8% Oklahoma14.5%	16.8%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Kay County9.1% Oklahoma10.7%	9.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Kay County5.1% Oklahoma4.8%	5.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Kay County3.9% Oklahoma5.7%	3.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Kay County2.4% Oklahoma2.7%	2.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Kay County0.6% Oklahoma1.2%	0.6%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Kay County7.0% Oklahoma6.2%	7.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Kay County6.5% Oklahoma6.6%	6.5%

Kay County Oklahoma Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Kay County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 16.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.5% across Oklahoma. Early starts are more common than in Oklahoma: 18.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.9% there. The morning rush looks much like Oklahoma's: 49.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.4% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.3%) 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 Kay 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 Kay 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 Kay County next to Oklahoma 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.

• Kay County
• Oklahoma
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Kay County	Oklahoma	United States
2009	7:42 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:40 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:38 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:37 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:38 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:36 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:36 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:35 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:34 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:35 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:34 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:32 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Kay County were on the road by 7:32 AM, 10 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:42 AM). The shift is sharper than across Oklahoma, where the typical start moved 4 minutes earlier. Commuters in Kay County now leave 6 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 Kay County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Kay County's commute time compare?

Metric	Kay County	Oklahoma	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.0 min	19.0 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	3.7%	9.4%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	1.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Kay County is 13.0 minutes, shorter than the 19.0 minutes in Oklahoma.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in Oklahoma. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 1.8% in Oklahoma.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau