Fayette County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Fayette County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Fayette County spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 178 hours, about 7.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 5% less time on the road than the Pennsylvania average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 1.0 minutes.

Fayette County holds about 1.0% of Pennsylvania's population but accounts for roughly 0.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Fayette County would save about 71 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,204 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)
Fayette County	21.3 min	42.7 min	178 hrs/yr	$5,510	946
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 21.3 minutes to get to work in Fayette County. That's 5% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Fayette County

• Car: 87.8%
• Worked at Home: 7.1%
• Walked: 2.2%
• Other: 1.8%
• Public Transportation: 1.0% unusually low
• Motorcycle: 0.1%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Fayette County: 3.7 times less than the Pennsylvania average (1.0% vs 3.6%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Fayette County: 43.2 times less than the Pennsylvania average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually rare in Fayette County: 14.4 times less than the Pennsylvania average (0.0% vs 0.4%).

Commute Mode Trends in Fayette County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Fayette 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
• Taxi
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	94.5%	2.2%	2.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	94.1%	2.1%	2.7%	0.7%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	93.8%	2.4%	2.6%	0.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	94.0%	2.3%	2.1%	1.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	94.1%	2.3%	1.9%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	93.4%	2.5%	2.3%	1.1%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	93.5%	2.6%	2.1%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	93.6%	2.7%	2.1%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	93.6%	2.9%	2.4%	0.6%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	93.7%	3.3%	2.1%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	93.5%	3.3%	2.1%	0.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	91.8%	4.4%	1.8%	0.7%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	91.1%	5.1%	1.6%	0.9%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	89.8%	5.9%	1.6%	1.3%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	88.6%	6.6%	1.7%	1.6%	1.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2024	87.8%	7.1%	2.2%	1.8%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 94.5% in 2009 to 87.8% in 2024, down 6.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Fayette County: its share of workers rose from 2.2% in 2009 to 7.1% in 2024, up 4.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2012 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Fayette County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Fayette County?

The bars show when commuters in Fayette 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 Fayette County7.6% Pennsylvania5.3%	7.6%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Fayette County5.0% Pennsylvania3.9%	5.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Fayette County6.2% Pennsylvania5.3%	6.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Fayette County11.3% Pennsylvania8.9%	11.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Fayette County9.2% Pennsylvania10.1%	9.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Fayette County11.1% Pennsylvania13.8%	11.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Fayette County10.0% Pennsylvania11.4%	10.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Fayette County9.9% Pennsylvania10.9%	9.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Fayette County4.4% Pennsylvania5.8%	4.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Fayette County5.3% Pennsylvania6.1%	5.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Fayette County2.2% Pennsylvania2.7%	2.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Fayette County1.6% Pennsylvania1.4%	1.6%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Fayette County9.3% Pennsylvania7.6%	9.3%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Fayette County6.8% Pennsylvania6.9%	6.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Fayette County is 6:00-6:29 AM, when 11.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 8.9% across Pennsylvania. Early starts are more common than in Pennsylvania: 18.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.4% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Pennsylvania: 40.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.2% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.3%) 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 Fayette 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 Fayette 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 Fayette 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.

• Fayette County
• Pennsylvania
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Fayette County	Pennsylvania	United States
2009	7:38 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:39 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:37 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:35 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:29 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:30 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:28 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:25 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:26 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:28 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Fayette County were on the road by 7:29 AM, 9 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:38 AM). The shift is sharper than across Pennsylvania, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Fayette County now leave 9 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 Fayette County has moved 4 minutes later.

How does Fayette County's commute time compare?

Metric	Fayette County	Pennsylvania	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.3 min	22.4 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	06:00 AM – 06:29 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	7.1%	15.6%	15.0%
Walked	2.2%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.0%	3.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Fayette County is 21.3 minutes, shorter than the 22.4 minutes in Pennsylvania.

1.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.6% in Pennsylvania. 2.2% commute by walking, lower than the 3.2% in Pennsylvania.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau