Jefferson County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Jefferson County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Jefferson County spend about 55 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 231 hours, about 9.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 24% more time on the road than the Tennessee average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 5.3 minutes.

Jefferson County holds about 0.8% of Tennessee's population but accounts for roughly 1.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Jefferson County would save about 92 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,865 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)
Jefferson County	27.7 min	55.5 min	231 hrs/yr	$7,163	1,128
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 27.7 minutes to get to work in Jefferson County. That's 24% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 04:00 PM – 11:59 PM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 6.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Jefferson County

• Car: 91.4%
• Worked at Home: 6.9%
• Walked: 1.2%
• Public Transportation: 0.2%
• Other: 0.2%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Jefferson County, versus 0.0% in Tennessee.

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Jefferson County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Jefferson 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
• Public Transportation
• Other
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	94.5%	2.7%	1.9%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	94.3%	2.7%	2.1%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	94.6%	2.5%	1.9%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	94.4%	2.4%	2.2%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	95.0%	2.8%	1.5%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	94.8%	3.0%	1.3%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	94.4%	3.1%	1.5%	0.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	93.1%	4.1%	1.6%	0.2%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	92.5%	4.7%	1.6%	0.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	92.4%	4.8%	1.6%	0.3%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	92.8%	4.4%	1.7%	0.3%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2020	92.1%	5.3%	1.6%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	91.6%	6.0%	1.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2022	92.3%	5.6%	1.4%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2023	92.3%	5.5%	1.5%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2024	91.4%	6.9%	1.2%	0.2%	0.2%	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 peaked in 2013 at 95.0%. Overall it fell from 94.5% in 2009 to 91.4% in 2024, down 3.1 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Jefferson County: its share of workers rose from 2.7% in 2009 to 6.9% in 2024, up 4.2 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.9% to 1.2% of workers (down 0.7 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Jefferson County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Jefferson County?

The bars show when commuters in Jefferson 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	12:00-4:59 AM Jefferson County6.0% Tennessee5.8%	6.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Jefferson County4.3% Tennessee4.4%	4.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Jefferson County8.5% Tennessee5.5%	8.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Jefferson County7.3% Tennessee9.9%	7.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Jefferson County10.8% Tennessee10.1%	10.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Jefferson County14.3% Tennessee14.7%	14.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Jefferson County10.7% Tennessee11.5%	10.7%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Jefferson County8.8% Tennessee10.1%	8.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Jefferson County2.6% Tennessee4.5%	2.6%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Jefferson County4.0% Tennessee5.7%	4.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Jefferson County2.4% Tennessee2.5%	2.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Jefferson County1.4% Tennessee1.2%	1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Jefferson County7.8% Tennessee6.8%	7.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Jefferson County11.1% Tennessee7.4%	11.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Jefferson County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.7% across Tennessee. Early starts are more common than in Tennessee: 18.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.7% there. The morning rush looks much like Tennessee's: 44.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.4% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.7%) 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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.

• Jefferson County
• Tennessee
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Jefferson County	Tennessee	United States
2009	7:35 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:35 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:33 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:30 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:28 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:28 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:34 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:33 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:33 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:32 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:31 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:30 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:32 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:28 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:28 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:28 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Jefferson County were on the road by 7:28 AM, 8 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:35 AM). Across Tennessee, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Jefferson County now leave 10 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 Jefferson County has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Jefferson County's commute time compare?

Metric	Jefferson County	Tennessee	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	27.7 min	22.4 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	04:00 PM – 11:59 PM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	6.9%	12.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.2%	1.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	0.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Jefferson County is 27.7 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Tennessee.

0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in Tennessee. The share of commuters using walking is about the same as Tennessee.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau