Roberts County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Roberts County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Roberts County spend about 27 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 115 hours, about 4.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 10% less time on the road than the South Dakota average of 15.3 minutes each way, a difference of 1.6 minutes.

Roberts County holds about 1.1% of South Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 1.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Roberts County would save about 46 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,420 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)
Roberts County	13.7 min	27.5 min	115 hrs/yr	$3,551	216
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 13.7 minutes to get to work in Roberts County. That's 39% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 9.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Roberts County

• Car: 83.4%
• Worked at Home: 9.0%
• Walked: 4.2%
• Other: 2.0%
• Public Transportation: 1.1%
• Motorcycle: 0.2%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Biking is unusually rare in Roberts County: 4.4 times less than the South Dakota average (0.1% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Roberts County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Taxi
2009	84.9%	7.9%	5.9%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	86.4%	6.2%	5.8%	1.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%
2011	85.0%	7.1%	6.5%	0.9%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2012	86.2%	6.6%	5.5%	1.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2013	86.2%	6.7%	5.3%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2014	86.3%	6.0%	5.7%	1.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2015	84.2%	7.4%	6.7%	1.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	85.3%	7.0%	6.2%	0.7%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	88.2%	4.8%	5.6%	0.6%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	88.5%	5.8%	4.4%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	89.3%	5.1%	3.9%	0.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	89.6%	5.2%	3.1%	1.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	88.8%	6.3%	3.1%	1.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	86.4%	7.4%	3.7%	2.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	84.9%	7.7%	4.4%	1.9%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	83.4%	9.0%	4.2%	2.0%	1.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2020 at 89.6%. Overall it fell from 84.9% in 2009 to 83.4% in 2024, down 1.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 4 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Roberts County: its share of workers rose from 7.9% in 2009 to 9.0% in 2024, up 1.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 5.9% to 4.2% of workers (down 1.7 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Roberts County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Roberts County?

The bars show when commuters in Roberts 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 Roberts County1.8% South Dakota4.1%	1.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Roberts County1.0% South Dakota3.1%	1.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Roberts County3.5% South Dakota5.1%	3.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Roberts County5.7% South Dakota6.9%	5.7%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Roberts County13.2% South Dakota11.3%	13.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Roberts County18.6% South Dakota16.2%	18.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Roberts County23.8% South Dakota19.9%	23.8%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Roberts County15.0% South Dakota10.2%	15.0%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Roberts County2.5% South Dakota3.7%	2.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Roberts County3.7% South Dakota4.3%	3.7%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Roberts County1.6% South Dakota2.0%	1.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Roberts County1.2% South Dakota1.4%	1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Roberts County4.0% South Dakota6.1%	4.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Roberts County4.6% South Dakota5.8%	4.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Roberts County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 23.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 19.9% across South Dakota. Early starts are less common than in South Dakota: 6.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.2% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in South Dakota: 70.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.7% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (15.0%) 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 Roberts 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 Roberts 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 Roberts 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.

• Roberts County
• South Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Roberts County	South Dakota	United States
2009	7:43 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:41 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:42 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:42 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:43 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:41 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:40 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:38 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:38 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:37 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:38 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:39 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:41 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:41 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:38 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:38 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Roberts County were on the road by 7:38 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:43 AM). South Dakota followed the same path, with the typical start moving 5 minutes earlier. Commuters in Roberts County now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Roberts County's commute time compare?

Metric	Roberts County	South Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.7 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	9.0%	9.7%	15.0%
Walked	4.2%	3.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Roberts County is 13.7 minutes, shorter than the 15.3 minutes in South Dakota.

1.1% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.5% in South Dakota. 4.2% commute by walking, higher than the 3.1% in South Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau