Aurora County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Aurora County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Aurora County spend about 36 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 150 hours, about 6.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 17% more time on the road than the South Dakota average of 15.3 minutes each way, a difference of 2.7 minutes.

Aurora County holds about 0.3% of South Dakota's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Aurora County would save about 60 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,861 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)
Aurora County	18.0 min	36.0 min	150 hrs/yr	$4,652	138
South Dakota	15.3 min	30.7 min	128 hrs/yr	$3,961	353
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 Dakota Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

N

On average, it takes 18.0 minutes to get to work in Aurora County. That's 20% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 82% of counties in South Dakota

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 13.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Aurora County

• Car: 82.9%
• Worked at Home: 13.3%
• Walked: 3.5%
• Other: 0.2%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is essentially absent in Aurora County, versus 0.5% in South Dakota.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Aurora County, versus 0.1% in South Dakota.

Biking is essentially absent in Aurora County, versus 0.3% in South Dakota.

Commute Mode Trends in Aurora County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Motorcycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	77.6%	14.0%	6.7%	1.5%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	78.6%	13.8%	5.1%	1.6%	0.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	79.5%	13.2%	6.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	80.7%	13.8%	4.7%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2013	82.4%	11.9%	4.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	81.4%	11.5%	5.2%	1.0%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.4%
2015	81.8%	9.3%	6.7%	1.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%
2016	79.8%	9.7%	7.0%	2.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%
2017	80.6%	9.5%	6.9%	2.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%
2018	82.2%	9.2%	5.9%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%
2019	82.5%	11.0%	5.0%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2020	81.6%	13.4%	3.6%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	81.6%	15.3%	3.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	82.4%	13.2%	4.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	80.9%	14.4%	4.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	82.9%	13.3%	3.5%	0.2%	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. Overall its share rose from 77.6% in 2009 to 82.9% in 2024, up 5.3 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 6.7% to 3.5% of workers (down 3.2 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 15.3% in 2021 and has since fallen back to 13.3%.

Commute Start Times in Aurora County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Aurora County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Aurora County4.7% South Dakota4.1%	4.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Aurora County1.8% South Dakota3.1%	1.8%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Aurora County2.9% South Dakota5.1%	2.9%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Aurora County14.3% South Dakota6.9%	14.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Aurora County7.1% South Dakota11.3%	7.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Aurora County20.6% South Dakota16.2%	20.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Aurora County22.6% South Dakota19.9%	22.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Aurora County11.1% South Dakota10.2%	11.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Aurora County4.2% South Dakota3.7%	4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Aurora County3.0% South Dakota4.3%	3.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Aurora County1.6% South Dakota2.0%	1.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Aurora County0.9% South Dakota1.4%	0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Aurora County1.3% South Dakota6.1%	1.3%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Aurora County3.7% South Dakota5.8%	3.7%

Aurora County South Dakota Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Aurora County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 22.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 19.9% across South Dakota. Early starts are less common than in South Dakota: 9.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.2% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in South Dakota: 61.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.7% there. About 1 in 9 commuters (10.6%) 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 Aurora 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 Aurora 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 Aurora County next to South Dakota 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.

• Aurora County
• South Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Aurora County	South Dakota	United States
2009	7:40 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:39 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:47 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:42 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:44 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:36 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:34 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:37 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:33 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:33 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:34 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Aurora County were on the road by 7:28 AM, 12 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:40 AM). The shift is sharper than across South Dakota, where the typical start moved 5 minutes earlier. Commuters in Aurora County now leave 10 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 Aurora County has moved 7 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Aurora County in the whole series.

How does Aurora County's commute time compare?

Metric	Aurora County	South Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.0 min	15.3 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	13.3%	9.7%	15.0%
Walked	3.5%	3.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Aurora County is 18.0 minutes, longer than the 15.3 minutes in South Dakota.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in South Dakota. 3.5% commute by walking, higher than the 3.1% in South Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau