Butler County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Butler County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Butler County spend about 47 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 194 hours, about 8.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 4% more time on the road than the Pennsylvania average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 0.9 minutes.

Butler County holds about 1.5% of Pennsylvania's population but accounts for roughly 1.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Butler County would save about 78 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,409 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)
Butler County	23.3 min	46.6 min	194 hrs/yr	$6,023	1,053
Pennsylvania	22.4 min	44.7 min	186 hrs/yr	$5,779	1,152
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: Pennsylvania Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 23.3 minutes to get to work in Butler County. That's 4% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 76% of counties in Pennsylvania

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 16.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Butler County

• Car: 80.0%
• Worked at Home: 16.8%
• Walked: 1.9%
• Other: 0.8%
• Public Transportation: 0.3% unusually low
• Bicycle: 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Butler County: 11.6 times less than the Pennsylvania average (0.3% vs 3.6%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Butler County, versus 0.2% in Pennsylvania.

Biking is unusually rare in Butler County: 3.1 times less than the Pennsylvania average (0.1% vs 0.4%).

Commute Mode Trends in Butler County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Taxi
2009	92.3%	3.7%	2.5%	0.5%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	92.2%	3.8%	2.4%	0.5%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	92.0%	3.9%	2.6%	0.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	91.4%	4.2%	2.8%	0.5%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	91.6%	4.2%	2.6%	0.5%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	91.4%	4.4%	2.5%	0.5%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2015	91.9%	4.2%	2.5%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	91.6%	4.5%	2.5%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	91.8%	4.4%	2.4%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	91.6%	4.7%	2.4%	0.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	91.5%	4.8%	2.5%	0.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	88.9%	7.5%	2.5%	0.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	86.9%	9.4%	2.3%	0.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	84.6%	11.7%	2.4%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	82.6%	13.9%	2.1%	0.9%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	80.0%	16.8%	1.9%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 92.3% in 2009 to 80.0% in 2024, down 12.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Butler County: its share of workers rose from 3.7% in 2009 to 16.8% in 2024, up 13.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 12.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.5% to 1.9% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Butler County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Butler County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Butler County5.4% Pennsylvania5.3%	5.4%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Butler County4.1% Pennsylvania3.9%	4.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Butler County6.0% Pennsylvania5.3%	6.0%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Butler County9.5% Pennsylvania8.9%	9.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Butler County11.2% Pennsylvania10.1%	11.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Butler County14.2% Pennsylvania13.8%	14.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Butler County13.0% Pennsylvania11.4%	13.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Butler County10.3% Pennsylvania10.9%	10.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Butler County5.1% Pennsylvania5.8%	5.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Butler County6.0% Pennsylvania6.1%	6.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Butler County2.3% Pennsylvania2.7%	2.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Butler County1.2% Pennsylvania1.4%	1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Butler County6.3% Pennsylvania7.6%	6.3%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Butler County5.5% Pennsylvania6.9%	5.5%

Butler County Pennsylvania Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Butler County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Pennsylvania. Early starts are more common than in Pennsylvania: 15.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.4% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Pennsylvania: 48.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.2% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.2%) 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 Butler 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 Butler 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 Butler County next to Pennsylvania 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.

• Butler County
• Pennsylvania
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Butler County	Pennsylvania	United States
2009	7:32 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:31 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:32 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:32 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:31 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:30 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:28 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:27 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:28 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:29 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Butler County were on the road by 7:29 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:32 AM). Pennsylvania followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Butler County now leave 9 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Butler County's commute time compare?

Metric	Butler County	Pennsylvania	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.3 min	22.4 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	16.8%	15.6%	15.0%
Walked	1.9%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	3.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Butler County is 23.3 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Pennsylvania.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.6% in Pennsylvania. 1.9% commute by walking, lower than the 3.2% in Pennsylvania.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau