Hamlin County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Hamlin County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Hamlin County spend about 37 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 153 hours, about 6.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% more time on the road than the South Dakota average of 15.3 minutes each way, a difference of 3.0 minutes.

Hamlin County holds about 0.7% of South Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Hamlin County would save about 61 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,898 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)
Hamlin County	18.4 min	36.7 min	153 hrs/yr	$4,744	505
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

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On average, it takes 18.4 minutes to get to work in Hamlin County. That's 18% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 85% of counties in South Dakota

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 walking. About 7.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Hamlin County

• Car: 85.3%
• Walked: 7.3%
• Worked at Home: 7.0%
• Other: 0.3%
• Bicycle: 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Hamlin County, versus 0.2% in South Dakota.

Public transit is unusually rare in Hamlin County: 5762136922.5 times less than the South Dakota average (0.0% vs 0.5%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Hamlin County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Hamlin 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
• Walked
• Worked at Home
• Other
• Bicycle
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Walked	Worked at Home	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	83.1%	6.1%	10.1%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	81.9%	6.9%	10.0%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	81.2%	7.6%	9.5%	1.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	82.4%	6.2%	10.0%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	81.4%	6.6%	10.0%	1.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	82.3%	7.2%	8.7%	1.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	82.6%	7.2%	8.5%	1.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	83.6%	7.1%	7.5%	1.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	83.4%	7.5%	6.9%	1.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	82.2%	6.1%	10.1%	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	84.2%	4.3%	10.4%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	84.1%	4.9%	10.2%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	84.5%	4.8%	10.1%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2022	86.7%	4.7%	8.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	86.2%	6.0%	7.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	85.3%	7.3%	7.0%	0.3%	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 was highest in 2022 at 86.7% and lowest in 2011 at 81.2%. Overall it rose from 83.1% in 2009 to 85.3% in 2024, up 2.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Walking gained the most ground in Hamlin County: its share of workers rose from 6.1% in 2009 to 7.3% in 2024, up 1.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 10.1% to 7.0% of workers (down 3.1 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Hamlin County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Hamlin County?

The bars show when commuters in Hamlin 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 Hamlin County6.6% South Dakota4.1%	6.6%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Hamlin County7.1% South Dakota3.1%	7.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Hamlin County6.5% South Dakota5.1%	6.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Hamlin County6.4% South Dakota6.9%	6.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Hamlin County13.6% South Dakota11.3%	13.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Hamlin County17.2% South Dakota16.2%	17.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Hamlin County16.1% South Dakota19.9%	16.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Hamlin County9.1% South Dakota10.2%	9.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Hamlin County2.3% South Dakota3.7%	2.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Hamlin County3.3% South Dakota4.3%	3.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Hamlin County0.9% South Dakota2.0%	0.9%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Hamlin County0.4% South Dakota1.4%	0.4%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Hamlin County3.9% South Dakota6.1%	3.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Hamlin County6.8% South Dakota5.8%	6.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Hamlin County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.2% across South Dakota. Early starts are more common than in South Dakota: 20.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.2% there. The morning rush looks much like South Dakota's: 55.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.7% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (15.3%) 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 Hamlin 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 Hamlin 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 Hamlin 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.

• Hamlin County
• South Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Hamlin County	South Dakota	United States
2009	7:22 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:23 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:23 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:25 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:23 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:22 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:24 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:24 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:21 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:16 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:16 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:19 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:19 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Hamlin County were on the road by 7:18 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:22 AM). South Dakota followed the same path, with the typical start moving 5 minutes earlier. Commuters in Hamlin County now leave 20 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Hamlin County's commute time compare?

Metric	Hamlin County	South Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.4 min	15.3 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.0%	9.7%	15.0%
Walked	7.3%	3.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Hamlin County is 18.4 minutes, longer than the 15.3 minutes in South Dakota.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in South Dakota. 7.3% commute by walking, higher than the 3.1% in South Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau