Commuting in Pennington County, South Dakota: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:23 PM
Is the commute in Pennington County longer than the national average?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:23 PM
Commute Time Burden in Pennington County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Pennington County spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 139 hours, about 5.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 9% more time on the road than the South Dakota average of 15.3 minutes each way, a difference of 1.4 minutes.
Pennington County holds about 12.5% of South Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 13.6% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Pennington County would save about 56 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,727 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)
Pennington County
16.7 min
33.4 min
139 hrs/yr
$4,318
603
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.
On average, it takes
16.7
minutes to get to work in
Pennington County.
That's 25% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Slower than 75% 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 9.6% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Pennington County
Car:
86.4%
Worked at Home:
9.6%
Walked:
1.9%
Other:
0.8%
Bicycle:
0.7%
Motorcycle:
0.4%
Public Transportation:
0.2%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Pennington County: 8.9 times less than the South Dakota average (0.0% vs 0.1%).
Commute Mode Trends in Pennington County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Pennington 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.
Share of workers aged 16 and over, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show commute mode data by year
Year
Car
Worked at Home
Walked
Other
Bicycle
Motorcycle
Public Transportation
Taxi
2009
91.3%
4.4%
2.0%
0.8%
0.3%
0.5%
0.8%
0.1%
2010
91.1%
4.4%
2.0%
0.9%
0.3%
0.4%
0.8%
0.1%
2011
91.5%
3.9%
2.0%
1.0%
0.3%
0.4%
0.9%
0.0%
2012
92.3%
3.5%
2.0%
0.6%
0.5%
0.3%
0.8%
0.0%
2013
92.3%
3.6%
2.3%
0.6%
0.5%
0.3%
0.5%
0.0%
2014
92.7%
3.2%
2.6%
0.4%
0.4%
0.3%
0.5%
0.0%
2015
92.3%
3.5%
2.7%
0.5%
0.4%
0.3%
0.4%
0.0%
2016
91.5%
3.9%
2.9%
0.6%
0.5%
0.3%
0.3%
0.0%
2017
91.0%
4.1%
3.2%
0.7%
0.3%
0.3%
0.4%
0.0%
2018
91.4%
4.5%
2.6%
0.4%
0.3%
0.3%
0.6%
0.0%
2019
91.5%
4.7%
2.1%
0.4%
0.3%
0.3%
0.8%
0.0%
2020
89.7%
6.0%
2.2%
0.4%
0.7%
0.2%
0.9%
0.0%
2021
89.1%
6.8%
2.2%
0.5%
0.6%
0.2%
0.7%
0.0%
2022
87.9%
8.4%
1.6%
0.9%
0.6%
0.3%
0.3%
0.0%
2023
86.3%
9.8%
1.6%
1.0%
0.7%
0.3%
0.2%
0.0%
2024
86.4%
9.6%
1.9%
0.8%
0.7%
0.4%
0.2%
0.0%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2014 at 92.7% and lowest in 2023 at 86.3%. Overall it fell from 91.3% in 2009 to 86.4% in 2024, down 4.9 percentage points.
Working from home gained the most ground in Pennington County: its share of workers rose from 4.4% in 2009 to 9.6% in 2024, up 5.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 0.8% to 0.2% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).
Walking peaked at 3.2% in 2017 and has since fallen back to 1.9%.
Commute Start Times in Pennington County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Pennington County?
The bars show when commuters in Pennington 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.
Pennington CountySouth DakotaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Pennington County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.2% across South Dakota. Early starts are about as common as in South Dakota: 11.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.2% there. The morning rush looks much like South Dakota's: 56.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.7% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.5%) 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 Pennington 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 Pennington 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 Pennington 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.
Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show typical departure times by year
Year
Pennington County
South Dakota
United States
2009
7:35 AM
7:40 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:34 AM
7:40 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:34 AM
7:40 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:33 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:34 AM
7:39 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:34 AM
7:39 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:33 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:32 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:31 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:30 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:29 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:32 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:29 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:27 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:27 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:25 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Pennington County were on the road by 7:25 AM, 10 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:35 AM). The shift is sharper than across South Dakota, where the typical start moved 5 minutes earlier. Commuters in Pennington County now leave 13 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 Pennington County has moved 4 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Pennington County in the whole series.
How does Pennington County's commute time compare?
Metric
Pennington County
South Dakota
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
16.7 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
9.6%
9.7%
15.0%
Walked
1.9%
3.1%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.2%
0.5%
3.2%
The average commute time in Pennington County is 16.7 minutes, longer than the 15.3 minutes in South Dakota.
0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in South Dakota. 1.9% commute by walking, lower than the 3.1% in South Dakota.
Pennington County, SD Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Pennington County, SD is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 113,512 residents against a local median of 13,491. Where Pennington County, SD breaks from the counties next to it is one-way commute, sitting 26% above the local median of 13.2 min at 16.7 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.
Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 9.6% against a local median of 8.1%, 18% above it. The counties themselves spread 15.2 min on one-way commute, so Pennington County, SD sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Pennington County, SD has the 4th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Pennington County, South Dakota.
Is commuting expensive in Pennington County, South Dakota?
Commuters here spend an estimated 139 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,318 at a typical national wage. That's 9% more than the typical South Dakota commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Pennington County, South Dakota?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Pennington County, South Dakota. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in South Dakota?
Among counties in South Dakota, the shortest average commutes are in Jones County (6.7 min), Bennett County (7.5 min), Jackson County (7.8 min). The longest are in Custer County (25.5 min), McCook County (25.4 min), Turner County (23.1 min).