DeKalb County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in DeKalb County, Tennessee: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 7:59 PM

How much time do drivers in DeKalb County spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 7:59 PM

Commute Time Burden in DeKalb County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in DeKalb County spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 188 hours, about 7.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% more time on the road than the Tennessee average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 0.2 minutes.

DeKalb County holds about 0.3% of Tennessee's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in DeKalb County would save about 75 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,336 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)
DeKalb County	22.6 min	45.2 min	188 hrs/yr	$5,840	537
Tennessee	22.4 min	44.8 min	187 hrs/yr	$5,785	1,225
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: Tennessee Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Tennessee

Dyer County (15.9 min)
Henry County (16.7 min)
Obion County (17.1 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Tennessee

Cannon County (33.3 min)
Union County (33.2 min)
Fayette County (33.1 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

DeKalb County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 22.6 minutes to get to work in DeKalb County. That's 1% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 6.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in DeKalb County

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in DeKalb County: 4.2 times more than the Tennessee average (0.2% vs 0.0%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in DeKalb County, versus 0.1% in Tennessee.

Biking is essentially absent in DeKalb County, versus 0.1% in Tennessee.

Commute Mode Trends in DeKalb County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in DeKalb 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	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	92.8%	3.0%	3.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	93.9%	2.5%	2.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	94.3%	3.3%	1.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	95.1%	2.4%	1.8%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	95.8%	1.6%	1.6%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	96.0%	1.8%	0.8%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	95.1%	2.3%	1.3%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	95.7%	1.8%	1.0%	1.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	97.0%	1.3%	0.6%	0.8%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	96.5%	1.9%	0.7%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	95.1%	2.1%	1.9%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	94.5%	3.0%	1.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	95.7%	2.7%	1.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	93.6%	4.1%	1.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	91.0%	6.5%	1.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.3%	6.6%	0.9%	0.6%	0.4%	0.2%	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 2017 at 97.0% and lowest in 2023 at 91.0%. Overall it fell from 92.8% in 2009 to 91.3% in 2024, down 1.5 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in DeKalb County: its share of workers rose from 3.0% in 2009 to 6.6% in 2024, up 3.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.8% to 0.9% of workers (down 2.9 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2014 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in DeKalb County

Earlier AlarmsThe 3rd-biggest shift to earlier mornings among Tennessee's 95 counties: the typical start is 23 minutes earlier than in 2009.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in DeKalb County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		9.6%
5:00-5:29 AM		9.7%
5:30-5:59 AM		8.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		12.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		12.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		9.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		6.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		0.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		2.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.4%

DeKalb County Tennessee Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in DeKalb County is 6:30-6:59 AM, when 12.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 10.1% across Tennessee. Early starts are more common than in Tennessee: 27.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Tennessee: 39.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.4% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.0%) 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 DeKalb 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 DeKalb 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 DeKalb County next to Tennessee 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	DeKalb County	Tennessee	United States
2009	7:19 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:09 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:10 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:12 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:09 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:07 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:06 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:11 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:05 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:06 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:05 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:13 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:06 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:02 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:02 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2024	6:56 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in DeKalb County were on the road by 6:56 AM, 23 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:19 AM). Across Tennessee, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in DeKalb County now leave 42 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 DeKalb County has moved 9 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for DeKalb County in the whole series.

How does DeKalb County's commute time compare?

Metric	DeKalb County	Tennessee	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.6 min	22.4 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	6.6%	12.9%	15.0%
Walked	0.9%	1.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.4%	0.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in DeKalb County is 22.6 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Tennessee.

The share of commuters using public transit is about the same as Tennessee. 0.9% commute by walking, lower than the 1.2% in Tennessee.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

DeKalb County, TN Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

DeKalb County, TN is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 20,959 residents against a local median of 28,160. Where DeKalb County, TN breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 31% below the local median of 9.6% at 6.6%.

The counties themselves spread 4.2% on work from home, so DeKalb County, TN sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. DeKalb County, TN has the 5th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
DeKalb County, TN	20,959	22.6 min #4/6	6.6% #5/6	6:56 AM #1/6
Cannon County, TN	14,818	33.3 min	9.6%	7:06 AM
Smith County, TN	20,389	27.6 min	8.2%	7:05 AM
Warren County, TN	42,165	20.3 min	6.4%	7:09 AM
Putnam County, TN	82,558	17.3 min	10.1%	7:33 AM
White County, TN	28,160	20.1 min	10.5%	7:18 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in DeKalb County, Tennessee.

How much does the average commute cost workers in DeKalb County, Tennessee?

Commuters here spend an estimated 188 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,840 at a typical national wage. That's 1% more than the typical Tennessee commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in DeKalb County, Tennessee?

Traffic peaks between 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM in DeKalb County, Tennessee. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in Tennessee?

Among counties in Tennessee, the shortest average commutes are in Dyer County (15.9 min), Henry County (16.7 min), Obion County (17.1 min). The longest are in Cannon County (33.3 min), Union County (33.2 min), Fayette County (33.1 min).