Union County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Union County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Union County spend about 66 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 277 hours, about 11.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 48% more time on the road than the Tennessee average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 10.8 minutes.

Union County holds about 0.3% of Tennessee's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Union County would save about 111 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,433 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)
Union County	33.2 min	66.4 min	277 hrs/yr	$8,582	1,114
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 33.2 minutes to get to work in Union County. That's 48% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 3 slowest counties in Tennessee

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 11.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Union County

• Car: 83.8%
• Worked at Home: 11.5%
• Walked: 2.9%
• Public Transportation: 1.4% unusually high
• Other: 0.4%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Public transit is unusually common in Union County: 3.4 times more than the Tennessee average (1.4% vs 0.4%).

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Union County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Union 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	94.8%	3.5%	0.9%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	94.6%	3.6%	1.0%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	95.7%	2.4%	1.2%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	95.8%	2.6%	0.8%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2013	96.4%	2.3%	1.0%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	95.4%	3.4%	0.9%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	94.7%	4.3%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	94.6%	4.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	94.0%	5.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	94.2%	4.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	92.2%	6.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	91.0%	5.9%	1.9%	0.1%	1.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	90.4%	6.8%	1.7%	0.0%	1.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	88.3%	9.1%	1.9%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	85.7%	11.0%	2.8%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	83.8%	11.5%	2.9%	1.4%	0.4%	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 96.4%. Overall it fell from 94.8% in 2009 to 83.8% in 2024, down 11.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Union County: its share of workers rose from 3.5% in 2009 to 11.5% in 2024, up 8.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Union County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Union County?

The bars show when commuters in Union 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 Union County5.9% Tennessee5.8%	5.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Union County5.1% Tennessee4.4%	5.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Union County6.8% Tennessee5.5%	6.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Union County15.4% Tennessee9.9%	15.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Union County9.4% Tennessee10.1%	9.4%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Union County17.5% Tennessee14.7%	17.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Union County9.2% Tennessee11.5%	9.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Union County10.7% Tennessee10.1%	10.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Union County3.8% Tennessee4.5%	3.8%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Union County1.4% Tennessee5.7%	1.4%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Union County2.3% Tennessee2.5%	2.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Union County1.1% Tennessee1.2%	1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Union County4.6% Tennessee6.8%	4.6%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Union County6.7% Tennessee7.4%	6.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Union County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.7% across Tennessee. Early starts are more common than in Tennessee: 17.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.7% there. The morning rush looks much like Tennessee's: 46.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.4% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.1%) 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 Union 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 Union 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 Union 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.

• Union County
• Tennessee
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Union County	Tennessee	United States
2009	7:10 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:12 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:16 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:15 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:13 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:17 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:14 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:08 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:10 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:14 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:14 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:18 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:20 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:17 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:17 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:13 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Union County were on the road by 7:13 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:10 AM). Across Tennessee, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Union County now leave 25 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 Union County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Union County's commute time compare?

Metric	Union County	Tennessee	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	33.2 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	11.5%	12.9%	15.0%
Walked	2.9%	1.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.4%	0.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Union County is 33.2 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Tennessee.

1.4% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.4% in Tennessee. 2.9% commute by walking, higher than the 1.2% in Tennessee.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau