Jefferson County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 8:36 PM

Is the commute in Jefferson County longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:36 PM

Commute Time Burden in Jefferson County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Jefferson County spend about 40 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 169 hours, about 7.0 full days, spent commuting. That is about the same time on the road as the Oregon average of 20.1 minutes each way.

Jefferson County holds about 0.6% of Oregon's population and accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Jefferson County would save about 67 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,091 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)
Jefferson County	20.2 min	40.5 min	169 hrs/yr	$5,229	409
Oregon	20.1 min	40.3 min	168 hrs/yr	$5,203	967
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: Oregon Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Oregon

Lake County (7.7 min)
Harney County (8.6 min)
Baker County (8.9 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Oregon

Columbia County (31.7 min)
Clackamas County (23.9 min)
Polk County (22.2 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Jefferson County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 20.2 minutes to get to work in Jefferson County. That's 10% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 71% of counties in Oregon

The most common departure window is 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Jefferson County

Driving is 21% more common in Jefferson County than the Oregon average (88.0% vs 72.9%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Jefferson County: 15.6 times less than the Oregon average (0.1% vs 2.2%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Jefferson County: 6.3 times less than the Oregon average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Biking is essentially absent in Jefferson County, versus 1.3% in Oregon.

Commute Mode Trends in Jefferson County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Jefferson 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	Other	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	85.9%	5.0%	7.5%	0.4%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%
2010	88.5%	5.8%	4.5%	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
2011	88.1%	5.2%	4.8%	0.5%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%	0.4%
2012	86.8%	4.4%	5.5%	1.8%	0.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%
2013	87.3%	4.4%	5.0%	2.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.6%
2014	87.5%	4.4%	4.5%	2.0%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.9%
2015	88.7%	4.0%	4.0%	1.8%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.9%
2016	89.0%	5.5%	3.0%	1.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.5%
2017	89.5%	6.0%	2.9%	0.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.6%
2018	87.1%	6.8%	3.9%	0.9%	1.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	89.7%	5.7%	2.8%	0.8%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	90.4%	5.2%	2.7%	0.7%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	89.8%	5.9%	2.8%	0.6%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	88.2%	7.3%	3.0%	0.6%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	89.0%	7.5%	3.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	88.0%	9.4%	2.2%	0.2%	0.1%	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 peaked in 2020 at 90.4%. Overall it rose from 85.9% in 2009 to 88.0% in 2024, up 2.1 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Jefferson County: its share of workers rose from 5.0% in 2009 to 9.4% in 2024, up 4.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 7.5% to 2.2% of workers (down 5.3 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2016 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Jefferson County

Dawn PatrolThe 3rd-highest share of pre-6 AM departures among Oregon's 36 counties: 25.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Jefferson County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		15.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.2%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		11.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		6.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		2.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.9%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.2%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.3%

Jefferson County Oregon Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Jefferson County is 12:00-4:59 AM, when 15.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 5.9% across Oregon. Early starts are more common than in Oregon: 25.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Oregon: 43.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.3% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.9%) 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson County next to Oregon 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	Jefferson County	Oregon	United States
2009	7:20 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:27 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:18 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:27 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:32 AM	7:42 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:33 AM	7:42 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:31 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:33 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:33 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:36 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:22 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:18 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:20 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:11 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:05 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Jefferson County were on the road by 7:05 AM, 15 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:20 AM). That goes against the trend across Oregon, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Jefferson County now leave 33 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 Jefferson County has moved 31 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Jefferson County in the whole series.

How does Jefferson County's commute time compare?

Metric	Jefferson County	Oregon	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.2 min	20.1 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	12:00 AM – 04:59 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	9.4%	19.0%	15.0%
Walked	2.2%	3.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	2.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in Jefferson County is about the same as in Oregon.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.2% in Oregon. 2.2% commute by walking, lower than the 3.3% in Oregon.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Jefferson County, OR Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Jefferson County, OR is typical in size for this group, 25,203 residents against a local median of 26,277, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Where Jefferson County, OR breaks from the counties next to it is one-way commute, sitting 20% above the local median of 16.9 min at 20.2 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 9.4% against a local median of 11.4%, 17% below it. The counties themselves spread 7.8 min on one-way commute, so Jefferson County, OR sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Jefferson County, OR has the 5th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Jefferson County, OR	25,203	20.2 min #5/6	9.4% #5/6	7:05 AM #2/6
Wasco County, OR	26,553	13.1 min	7.9%	7:34 AM
Deschutes County, OR	206,229	16.9 min	22.6%	7:49 AM
Sherman County, OR	1,937	17.9 min	10.0%	7:03 AM
Crook County, OR	26,277	20.9 min	11.4%	7:20 AM
Hood River County, OR	23,904	15.9 min	20.3%	7:22 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Jefferson County, Oregon.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Jefferson County, Oregon?

Commuters here spend an estimated 169 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,229 at a typical national wage.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Jefferson County, Oregon?

Traffic peaks between 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM in Jefferson County, Oregon. 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 Jefferson County, Oregon?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.1% of commuters use it versus 2.2% in Oregon, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

How do commute times compare across counties in Oregon?

Among counties in Oregon, the shortest average commutes are in Lake County (7.7 min), Harney County (8.6 min), Baker County (8.9 min). The longest are in Columbia County (31.7 min), Clackamas County (23.9 min), Polk County (22.2 min).