Bell County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 7:56 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 7:56 PM

Commute Time Burden in Bell County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Bell County spend about 37 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 154 hours, about 6.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 19% less time on the road than the Texas average of 22.8 minutes each way, a difference of 4.3 minutes.

Bell County holds about 1.3% of Texas's population but accounts for roughly 1.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Bell County would save about 62 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,914 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)
Bell County	18.5 min	37.1 min	154 hrs/yr	$4,786	1,557
Texas	22.8 min	45.6 min	190 hrs/yr	$5,888	1,441
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: Texas Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Texas

Loving County (3.2 min)
King County (5.8 min)
Terrell County (6.5 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Texas

Bandera County (38.6 min)
San Jacinto County (35.9 min)
Liberty County (33.6 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Bell County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 18.5 minutes to get to work in Bell County. That's 17% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Bell County

Public transit is unusually rare in Bell County: 3.0 times less than the Texas average (0.3% vs 0.9%).

Commute Mode Trends in Bell County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Bell 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	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	92.9%	2.8%	2.6%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%
2010	92.7%	2.7%	2.7%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%	0.5%	0.1%
2011	92.8%	2.5%	2.8%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.5%	0.2%
2012	93.0%	2.6%	2.5%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.4%	0.2%
2013	93.0%	2.7%	2.6%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2014	92.9%	2.7%	2.6%	1.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%
2015	92.8%	3.2%	2.1%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.3%
2016	92.9%	3.4%	1.9%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.3%
2017	92.5%	3.5%	2.1%	0.6%	0.4%	0.1%	0.4%	0.3%
2018	92.3%	3.9%	2.2%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%
2019	91.6%	4.2%	2.6%	0.4%	0.5%	0.1%	0.4%	0.3%
2020	90.7%	4.9%	2.7%	0.3%	0.5%	0.3%	0.4%	0.2%
2021	89.9%	6.0%	2.5%	0.4%	0.4%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%
2022	88.6%	7.5%	2.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%
2023	87.6%	8.6%	2.2%	0.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	87.0%	9.4%	1.8%	0.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2012 at 93.0%. Overall it fell from 92.9% in 2009 to 87.0% in 2024, down 5.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 8 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Bell County: its share of workers rose from 2.8% in 2009 to 9.4% in 2024, up 6.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.6% to 1.8% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Bell County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Bell County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		7.5%
5:00-5:29 AM		6.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		8.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.7%
6:30-6:59 AM		11.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.1%
8:00-8:29 AM		7.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.1%

Bell County Texas Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Bell County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across Texas. Early starts are more common than in Texas: 22.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Texas: 43.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.9% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.0%) 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 Bell 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 Bell 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 Bell County next to Texas 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	Bell County	Texas	United States
2009	7:16 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:15 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:13 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:13 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:12 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:12 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:12 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:15 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:14 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:16 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:17 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:17 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:15 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:17 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:16 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:15 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Bell County were on the road by 7:15 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:16 AM). That goes against the trend across Texas, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Bell County now leave 23 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 Bell County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Bell County's commute time compare?

Metric	Bell County	Texas	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.5 min	22.8 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	9.4%	14.4%	15.0%
Walked	1.8%	1.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Bell County is 18.5 minutes, shorter than the 22.8 minutes in Texas.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.9% in Texas. 1.8% commute by walking, higher than the 1.5% in Texas.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Bell County, TX Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Bell County, TX is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 386,831 residents against a local median of 84,738. Where Bell County, TX breaks from the counties next to it is one-way commute, sitting 27% below the local median of 25.4 min at 18.5 min. That is the better end of the local range on this measure.

The counties themselves spread 8.2 min on one-way commute, so Bell County, TX sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Bell County, TX has the 3rd lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Bell County, TX	386,831	18.5 min #3/6	9.4% #5/6	7:15 AM #3/6
Williamson County, TX	671,548	25.7 min	25.4%	7:43 AM
Coryell County, TX	84,738	18.0 min	11.0%	7:05 AM
Milam County, TX	25,558	25.4 min	9.8%	7:15 AM
Falls County, TX	17,291	26.2 min	8.8%	7:12 AM
McLennan County, TX	265,889	18.1 min	9.8%	7:37 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Bell County, Texas.

Is living in Bell County, Texas good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 154 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,786 at a typical national wage. That's 19% less than the typical Texas commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Bell County, Texas?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Bell County, Texas. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Bell County, Texas?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.3% of commuters use it versus 0.9% in Texas, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

How do commute times compare across counties in Texas?

Among counties in Texas, the shortest average commutes are in Loving County (3.3 min), King County (5.8 min), Terrell County (6.5 min). The longest are in Bandera County (38.6 min), San Jacinto County (35.9 min), Liberty County (33.6 min).