Lake County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Lake County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Lake County spend about 15 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 64 hours, about 2.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 62% less time on the road than the Oregon average of 20.1 minutes each way, a difference of 12.5 minutes.

Lake County holds about 0.2% of Oregon's population but accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Lake County would save about 26 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $793 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)
Lake County	7.7 min	15.4 min	64 hrs/yr	$1,984	68
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 7.7 minutes to get to work in Lake County. That's 66% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Fastest county in Oregon

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by walking. About 8.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Lake County

• Car: 82.5%
• Walked: 8.8%
• Worked at Home: 8.4%
• Bicycle: 0.3% unusually low
• Other: < 0.1%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Lake County, versus 0.2% in Oregon.

Public transit is essentially absent in Lake County, versus 2.2% in Oregon.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Lake County, versus 0.1% in Oregon.

Biking is unusually rare in Lake County: 4.6 times less than the Oregon average (0.3% vs 1.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Lake County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Lake 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
• Walked
• Worked at Home
• Bicycle
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Walked	Worked at Home	Bicycle	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	74.6%	10.3%	11.8%	1.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	1.5%
2010	75.0%	8.0%	13.9%	0.7%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	1.7%
2011	75.3%	6.4%	15.7%	0.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	1.5%
2012	76.4%	6.1%	15.0%	0.3%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	1.5%
2013	78.3%	6.2%	14.3%	0.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2014	80.5%	6.4%	11.2%	0.6%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	82.1%	7.2%	8.9%	0.4%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2016	82.2%	7.7%	7.9%	0.8%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2017	79.9%	6.6%	11.1%	0.7%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2018	80.0%	5.9%	11.9%	0.6%	1.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2019	76.3%	5.4%	15.7%	1.1%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%
2020	74.4%	6.7%	16.6%	1.3%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	75.9%	8.4%	14.0%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	77.5%	8.5%	12.6%	1.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	78.3%	9.7%	10.5%	1.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	82.5%	8.8%	8.4%	0.3%	0.1%	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 2020 at 74.4%. Overall it rose from 74.6% in 2009 to 82.5% in 2024, up 7.9 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 4 releases.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 11.8% to 8.4% of workers (down 3.4 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Lake County

• 🛌 Hitting SnoozeThe 2nd-biggest shift to later mornings among Oregon's 36 counties: the typical start is 20 minutes later than in 2009.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Lake County?

The bars show when commuters in Lake 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	12:00-4:59 AM Lake County5.0% Oregon5.9%	5.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Lake County0.9% Oregon3.8%	0.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Lake County10.7% Oregon5.0%	10.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Lake County10.4% Oregon7.6%	10.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Lake County11.5% Oregon9.7%	11.5%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Lake County11.2% Oregon13.0%	11.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Lake County23.8% Oregon13.0%	23.8%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Lake County9.5% Oregon10.6%	9.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Lake County3.3% Oregon5.8%	3.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Lake County3.1% Oregon7.2%	3.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Lake County3.5% Oregon3.7%	3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Lake County0.8% Oregon1.8%	0.8%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Lake County4.1% Oregon7.1%	4.1%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Lake County2.3% Oregon5.7%	2.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Lake County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 23.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.0% across Oregon. Early starts are more common than in Oregon: 16.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Oregon: 56.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.3% 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 Lake 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 Lake 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 Lake 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.

• Lake County
• Oregon
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Lake County	Oregon	United States
2009	7:10 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:10 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:12 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:31 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:28 AM	7:42 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:23 AM	7:42 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:24 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:29 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:30 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:40 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:39 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:38 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:35 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:31 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:22 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:30 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Lake County were on the road by 7:30 AM, 20 minutes later than in 2009 (7:10 AM). The shift is sharper than across Oregon, where the typical start moved 2 minutes later. Commuters in Lake County now leave 7 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 Lake County has moved 8 minutes earlier.

How does Lake County's commute time compare?

Metric	Lake County	Oregon	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	7.7 min	20.1 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.4%	19.0%	15.0%
Walked	8.8%	3.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	2.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in Lake County is 7.7 minutes, shorter than the 20.1 minutes in Oregon.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.2% in Oregon. 8.8% commute by walking, higher than the 3.3% in Oregon.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau