Lee County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Lee County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Lee County spend about 53 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 220 hours, about 9.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 18% more time on the road than the South Carolina average of 22.3 minutes each way, a difference of 4.1 minutes.

Lee County holds about 0.3% of South Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Lee County would save about 88 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,727 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)
Lee County	26.4 min	52.8 min	220 hrs/yr	$6,817	765
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.

Commute Time Map: South Carolina Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 26.4 minutes to get to work in Lee County. That's 18% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 04:00 PM – 11:59 PM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 2.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Lee County

• Car: 93.4%
• Worked at Home: 2.9% unusually low
• Other: 2.6%
• Walked: 1.1%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Lee County: 754005172.9 times less than the South Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Lee County: 39675999000.4 times less than the South Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.4%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Lee County: 3.6 times less than the South Carolina average (0.1% vs 0.2%).

Working from home is unusually rare in Lee County: 4.0 times less than the South Carolina average (2.9% vs 11.5%).

Biking is essentially absent in Lee County, versus 0.2% in South Carolina.

Commute Mode Trends in Lee County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Taxi	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	92.0%	3.5%	0.5%	2.0%	0.5%	0.9%	0.2%	0.6%
2010	93.1%	3.9%	0.4%	1.3%	0.3%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	93.2%	4.5%	0.3%	1.0%	0.0%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	94.3%	3.8%	0.5%	0.8%	0.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2013	94.2%	2.8%	1.0%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2014	95.6%	1.9%	1.1%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	95.2%	1.5%	1.6%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	95.3%	1.1%	2.0%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	93.5%	2.0%	2.0%	2.1%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	94.7%	2.2%	1.6%	1.1%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	95.0%	1.5%	1.8%	1.3%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	95.1%	1.5%	1.2%	1.5%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	96.2%	2.0%	0.4%	0.9%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	95.6%	1.5%	1.9%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	95.2%	1.7%	1.8%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	93.4%	2.9%	2.6%	1.1%	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 peaked in 2021 at 96.2%. Overall it rose from 92.0% in 2009 to 93.4% in 2024, up 1.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 0.9% to 0.0% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 4.5% in 2011 and has since fallen back to 2.9%.

Commute Start Times in Lee County

• 😴 Sleeping InThe 3rd-highest share of 9 AM-or-later starts among South Carolina's 46 counties: 28.3% of commuters leave at 9 AM or later.
• 🛌 Hitting SnoozeThe 3rd-biggest shift to later mornings among South Carolina's 46 counties: the typical start is 11 minutes later than in 2009.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Lee County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Lee County5.0% South Carolina5.0%	5.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Lee County4.8% South Carolina3.7%	4.8%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Lee County3.4% South Carolina4.6%	3.4%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Lee County6.3% South Carolina9.1%	6.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Lee County8.3% South Carolina10.5%	8.3%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Lee County20.2% South Carolina15.3%	20.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Lee County10.8% South Carolina12.6%	10.8%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Lee County8.3% South Carolina11.1%	8.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Lee County4.6% South Carolina5.2%	4.6%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Lee County4.6% South Carolina6.1%	4.6%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Lee County2.2% South Carolina2.7%	2.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Lee County1.0% South Carolina1.2%	1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Lee County9.1% South Carolina6.3%	9.1%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Lee County11.4% South Carolina6.6%	11.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Lee County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 20.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across South Carolina. Early starts are about as common as in South Carolina: 13.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.2% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in South Carolina: 47.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.6% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (28.3%) 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 Lee 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 Lee 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 Lee County 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.

• Lee County
• South Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Lee County	South Carolina	United States
2009	7:24 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:30 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:28 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:28 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:24 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:22 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:16 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:15 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:17 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:23 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:27 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:36 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:36 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Lee County were on the road by 7:36 AM, 11 minutes later than in 2009 (7:24 AM). That goes against the trend across South Carolina, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Lee County now leave 2 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 Lee County has moved 21 minutes later.

How does Lee County's commute time compare?

Metric	Lee County	South Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	26.4 min	22.3 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	04:00 PM – 11:59 PM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	2.9%	11.5%	15.0%
Walked	1.1%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Lee County is 26.4 minutes, longer than the 22.3 minutes in South Carolina.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in South Carolina. 1.1% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in South Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau