Mellette County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Mellette County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Mellette County spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 128 hours, about 5.3 full days, spent commuting. That is about the same time on the road as the South Dakota average of 15.3 minutes each way.

Mellette County holds about 0.2% of South Dakota's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Mellette County would save about 51 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,586 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)
Mellette County	15.4 min	30.7 min	128 hrs/yr	$3,966	104
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 15.4 minutes to get to work in Mellette County. That's 31% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 71% 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 working from home. About 13.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Mellette County

• Car: 82.4%
• Worked at Home: 13.9%
• Walked: 2.1%
• Other: 1.6%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

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

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Mellette County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Mellette 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
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	60.2%	30.9%	7.3%	1.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	62.5%	27.7%	8.3%	0.7%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	63.1%	27.8%	7.3%	0.6%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	59.8%	32.6%	6.5%	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	62.0%	29.0%	8.4%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	64.8%	22.9%	11.7%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	63.5%	24.3%	11.1%	0.0%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	67.1%	21.4%	11.1%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	78.5%	11.2%	10.0%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	83.6%	5.9%	9.8%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	84.0%	5.6%	8.3%	0.0%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	86.0%	1.5%	8.7%	3.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	87.0%	4.4%	6.8%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	87.4%	5.1%	5.5%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	86.9%	5.9%	5.0%	2.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	82.4%	13.9%	2.1%	1.6%	0.0%	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 87.4% and lowest in 2012 at 59.8%. Overall it rose from 60.2% in 2009 to 82.4% in 2024, up 22.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 30.9% to 13.9% of workers (down 17.0 percentage points).

Walking peaked at 11.7% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 2.1%.

Commute Start Times in Mellette County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Mellette County?

The bars show when commuters in Mellette 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 Mellette County3.7% South Dakota4.1%	3.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Mellette County0.0% South Dakota3.1%	0.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Mellette County3.7% South Dakota5.1%	3.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Mellette County6.8% South Dakota6.9%	6.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Mellette County8.7% South Dakota11.3%	8.7%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Mellette County25.8% South Dakota16.2%	25.8%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Mellette County22.7% South Dakota19.9%	22.7%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Mellette County13.2% South Dakota10.2%	13.2%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Mellette County2.2% South Dakota3.7%	2.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Mellette County0.8% South Dakota4.3%	0.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Mellette County0.0% South Dakota2.0%	0.0%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Mellette County2.0% South Dakota1.4%	2.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Mellette County4.8% South Dakota6.1%	4.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Mellette County5.6% South Dakota5.8%	5.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Mellette County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 25.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.2% across South Dakota. Early starts are less common than in South Dakota: 7.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.2% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in South Dakota: 70.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.7% there. About 1 in 8 commuters (13.2%) 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 Mellette 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 Mellette 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 Mellette 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.

• Mellette County
• South Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Mellette County	South Dakota	United States
2009	7:41 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:31 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:31 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:30 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:26 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:29 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:27 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:25 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:27 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:23 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:27 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:41 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:33 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Mellette County were on the road by 7:32 AM, 9 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:41 AM). The shift is sharper than across South Dakota, where the typical start moved 5 minutes earlier. Commuters in Mellette County now leave 6 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 Mellette County has moved 9 minutes later.

How does Mellette County's commute time compare?

Metric	Mellette County	South Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.4 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	13.9%	9.7%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	3.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Mellette County is about the same as in South Dakota.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in South Dakota. 2.1% commute by walking, lower than the 3.1% in South Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau