Van Buren County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Van Buren County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Van Buren County spend about 61 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 253 hours, about 10.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 36% more time on the road than the Tennessee average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 8.0 minutes.

Van Buren County holds about 0.1% of Tennessee's population and accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Van Buren County would save about 101 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,137 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)
Van Buren County	30.4 min	60.7 min	253 hrs/yr	$7,842	349
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 30.4 minutes to get to work in Van Buren County. That's 35% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 74% of counties in Tennessee

The most common departure window is 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Van Buren County

• Car: 84.8%
• Worked at Home: 9.7%
• Walked: 3.9% unusually high
• Other: 1.0%
• Bicycle: 0.6% unusually high
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Walking is unusually common in Van Buren County: 3.2 times more than the Tennessee average (3.9% vs 1.2%).

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

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

Biking is unusually common in Van Buren County: 5.5 times more than the Tennessee average (0.6% vs 0.1%).

Van Buren County stands out for active commuting: 4.5% of workers walk or bike to work, 3.4 times the Tennessee average of 1.3%.

Commute Mode Trends in Van Buren County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Van Buren 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
• Bicycle
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	93.5%	2.6%	1.6%	1.6%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	93.6%	2.9%	1.7%	1.5%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	92.2%	3.4%	1.5%	2.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	92.4%	3.8%	0.4%	2.8%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%
2013	94.0%	3.4%	0.5%	1.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2014	91.6%	5.9%	0.6%	1.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2015	90.1%	7.3%	0.7%	1.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	89.6%	5.9%	0.4%	1.2%	2.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	88.8%	7.8%	0.5%	0.4%	1.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	88.2%	9.3%	0.0%	0.6%	1.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	89.8%	6.4%	0.9%	0.7%	1.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	91.7%	3.9%	0.8%	1.5%	1.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	87.8%	6.6%	3.4%	1.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	93.3%	3.0%	3.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	89.0%	5.5%	4.0%	1.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	84.8%	9.7%	3.9%	1.0%	0.6%	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 94.0%. Overall it fell from 93.5% in 2009 to 84.8% in 2024, down 8.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Van Buren County: its share of workers rose from 2.6% in 2009 to 9.7% in 2024, up 7.1 percentage points.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 0.7% to 0.0% of workers (down 0.7 percentage points).

Biking overtook public transit to become the 5th most common choice in the 2016 release and has stayed ahead since.

Biking peaked at 2.0% in 2016 and has since fallen back to 0.6%.

Commute Start Times in Van Buren County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Van Buren County?

The bars show when commuters in Van Buren 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 Van Buren County5.8% Tennessee5.8%	5.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Van Buren County6.1% Tennessee4.4%	6.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Van Buren County4.8% Tennessee5.5%	4.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Van Buren County26.3% Tennessee9.9%	26.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Van Buren County12.5% Tennessee10.1%	12.5%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Van Buren County14.0% Tennessee14.7%	14.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Van Buren County5.4% Tennessee11.5%	5.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Van Buren County6.9% Tennessee10.1%	6.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Van Buren County0.2% Tennessee4.5%	0.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Van Buren County0.5% Tennessee5.7%	0.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Van Buren County0.5% Tennessee2.5%	0.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Van Buren County0.0% Tennessee1.2%	0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Van Buren County12.8% Tennessee6.8%	12.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Van Buren County4.4% Tennessee7.4%	4.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Van Buren County is 6:00-6:29 AM, when 26.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 9.9% across Tennessee. Early starts are more common than in Tennessee: 16.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Tennessee: 38.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.4% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (18.1%) 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 Van Buren 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 Van Buren 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 Van Buren 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.

• Van Buren County
• Tennessee
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Van Buren County	Tennessee	United States
2009	6:56 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:00 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:00 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	6:48 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:02 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:02 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	6:58 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:03 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:05 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:01 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:07 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:00 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2021	6:50 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2022	6:58 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2023	6:48 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2024	6:47 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Van Buren County were on the road by 6:47 AM, 9 minutes earlier than in 2009 (6:56 AM). Across Tennessee, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Van Buren County now leave 51 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 Van Buren County has moved 20 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Van Buren County in the whole series.

How does Van Buren County's commute time compare?

Metric	Van Buren County	Tennessee	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.4 min	22.4 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	9.7%	12.9%	15.0%
Walked	3.9%	1.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Van Buren County is 30.4 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Tennessee.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in Tennessee. 3.9% commute by walking, higher than the 1.2% in Tennessee.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau