Bluffton Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Bluffton: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Bluffton spend about 51 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 212 hours, about 8.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 14% more time on the road than the South Carolina average of 22.3 minutes each way, a difference of 3.1 minutes.

Bluffton holds about 0.6% of South Carolina's population and accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Bluffton would save about 85 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,623 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)
Bluffton	25.4 min	50.8 min	212 hrs/yr	$6,558	3,848
South Carolina	22.3 min	44.5 min	186 hrs/yr	$5,753	1,499
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.

Bluffton Commute Map

On average, it takes 25.4 minutes to get to work in Bluffton. That's 13% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 15.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Bluffton

• Car: 82.3%
• Worked at Home: 15.0%
• Other: 1.4%
• Bicycle: 0.9% unusually high
• Walked: 0.5% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Bluffton, versus 0.1% in South Carolina.

Walking is unusually rare in Bluffton: 3.3 times less than the South Carolina average (0.5% vs 1.6%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Bluffton: 1135.9 times less than the South Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.4%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Bluffton: 2493.1 times less than the South Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually common in Bluffton: 4.4 times more than the South Carolina average (0.9% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Bluffton, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Bicycle	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	91.1%	5.6%	0.6%	0.0%	2.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%
2010	93.0%	4.0%	0.3%	0.0%	2.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.4%
2011	93.2%	3.6%	0.3%	0.0%	2.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%
2012	93.5%	3.4%	0.4%	0.0%	1.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.5%
2013	94.0%	4.2%	0.3%	0.1%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	94.8%	4.2%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	93.0%	6.0%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	92.5%	6.6%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	91.4%	7.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	91.4%	7.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	89.3%	8.8%	0.8%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2020	90.0%	8.6%	0.5%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2021	87.5%	10.5%	0.6%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2022	84.7%	12.9%	0.6%	0.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.5%	0.1%
2023	84.4%	13.7%	0.5%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2024	82.3%	15.0%	1.4%	0.9%	0.5%	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 peaked in 2014 at 94.8%. Overall it fell from 91.1% in 2009 to 82.3% in 2024, down 8.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 4 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Bluffton: its share of workers rose from 5.6% in 2009 to 15.0% in 2024, up 9.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.1% to 0.5% of workers (down 1.6 percentage points).

Biking overtook taking a taxi to become the 4th most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Bluffton

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Bluffton?

The bars show when commuters in Bluffton 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 South Carolina for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Bluffton4.0% South Carolina5.0%	4.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Bluffton1.3% South Carolina3.7%	1.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Bluffton2.5% South Carolina4.6%	2.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Bluffton6.9% South Carolina9.1%	6.9%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Bluffton12.4% South Carolina10.5%	12.4%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Bluffton13.3% South Carolina15.3%	13.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Bluffton17.6% South Carolina12.6%	17.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Bluffton12.4% South Carolina11.1%	12.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Bluffton7.7% South Carolina5.2%	7.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Bluffton9.3% South Carolina6.1%	9.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Bluffton3.1% South Carolina2.7%	3.1%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Bluffton1.1% South Carolina1.2%	1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Bluffton5.8% South Carolina6.3%	5.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Bluffton2.6% South Carolina6.6%	2.6%

Bluffton South Carolina Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Bluffton is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 17.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.6% across South Carolina. Early starts are less common than in South Carolina: 7.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.2% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in South Carolina: 55.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.6% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.9%) 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 Bluffton, 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 Bluffton 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 Bluffton next to South Carolina 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.

• Bluffton
• South Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Bluffton	South Carolina	United States
2009	7:50 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:49 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:49 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:50 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:41 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:43 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:44 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:44 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:38 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:39 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:35 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:38 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:38 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:45 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:46 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Bluffton were on the road by 7:46 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:50 AM). South Carolina followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Bluffton now leave 9 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Bluffton has moved 8 minutes later.

How does Bluffton's commute time compare?

Metric	Bluffton	South Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	25.4 min	22.3 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	15.0%	11.5%	15.0%
Walked	0.5%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Bluffton is 25.4 minutes, longer than the 22.3 minutes in South Carolina.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in South Carolina. 0.5% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in South Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau