Unicoi County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Unicoi County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Unicoi County spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 182 hours, about 7.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 3% less time on the road than the Tennessee average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 0.6 minutes.

Unicoi County holds about 0.3% of Tennessee's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Unicoi County would save about 73 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,253 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)
Unicoi County	21.8 min	43.6 min	182 hrs/yr	$5,633	750
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 21.8 minutes to get to work in Unicoi County. That's 3% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 6.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Unicoi County

• Car: 91.6%
• Worked at Home: 6.0%
• Walked: 1.3%
• Other: 1.1%
• 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 Unicoi County, versus 0.0% in Tennessee.

Public transit is essentially absent in Unicoi County, versus 0.4% in Tennessee.

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Unicoi County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Unicoi 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	92.8%	3.6%	1.4%	1.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	91.7%	4.1%	1.4%	1.4%	1.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	90.8%	5.0%	1.4%	1.2%	1.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	89.7%	5.4%	1.6%	1.8%	1.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	90.6%	4.0%	1.7%	1.6%	1.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2014	90.5%	4.2%	1.0%	2.0%	2.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2015	91.2%	3.4%	1.1%	2.8%	1.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2016	88.3%	5.2%	1.4%	4.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2017	90.0%	4.5%	1.5%	3.1%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	88.6%	4.9%	2.2%	3.1%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	86.6%	6.1%	3.4%	3.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	88.6%	5.9%	2.9%	2.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	90.4%	5.1%	3.3%	0.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	88.0%	7.2%	3.3%	1.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	88.7%	7.3%	2.6%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.6%	6.0%	1.3%	1.1%	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 bottomed out in 2019 at 86.6%. Overall it fell from 92.8% in 2009 to 91.6% in 2024, down 1.2 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Unicoi County: its share of workers rose from 3.6% in 2009 to 6.0% in 2024, up 2.4 percentage points.

Public transit peaked at 2.1% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 0.0%.

Commute Start Times in Unicoi County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Unicoi County?

The bars show when commuters in Unicoi 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 Unicoi County3.7% Tennessee5.8%	3.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Unicoi County4.4% Tennessee4.4%	4.4%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Unicoi County2.3% Tennessee5.5%	2.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Unicoi County14.9% Tennessee9.9%	14.9%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Unicoi County8.8% Tennessee10.1%	8.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Unicoi County22.3% Tennessee14.7%	22.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Unicoi County12.1% Tennessee11.5%	12.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Unicoi County4.7% Tennessee10.1%	4.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Unicoi County2.0% Tennessee4.5%	2.0%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Unicoi County6.6% Tennessee5.7%	6.6%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Unicoi County2.7% Tennessee2.5%	2.7%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Unicoi County0.3% Tennessee1.2%	0.3%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Unicoi County5.8% Tennessee6.8%	5.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Unicoi County9.6% Tennessee7.4%	9.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Unicoi County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 22.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.7% across Tennessee. Early starts are less common than in Tennessee: 10.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.7% there. The morning rush looks much like Tennessee's: 47.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.4% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.0%) 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 Unicoi 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 Unicoi 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 Unicoi 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.

• Unicoi County
• Tennessee
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Unicoi County	Tennessee	United States
2009	7:29 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:29 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:29 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:27 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:21 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:22 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:24 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:28 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:32 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:36 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:23 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:19 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:21 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:21 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:22 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Unicoi County were on the road by 7:22 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:29 AM). Across Tennessee, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Unicoi County now leave 16 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 Unicoi County has moved 14 minutes earlier.

How does Unicoi County's commute time compare?

Metric	Unicoi County	Tennessee	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.8 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	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	6.0%	12.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.3%	1.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Unicoi County is about the same as in Tennessee.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in Tennessee. 1.3% commute by walking, higher than the 1.2% in Tennessee.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau