Refugio County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Refugio County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Refugio County spend about 27 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 114 hours, about 4.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 40% less time on the road than the Texas average of 22.8 minutes each way, a difference of 9.1 minutes.

Refugio County holds about 0.0% of Texas's population and accounts for roughly 0.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Refugio County would save about 46 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,416 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)
Refugio County	13.7 min	27.4 min	114 hrs/yr	$3,540	451
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 13.7 minutes to get to work in Refugio County. That's 39% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 74% of counties in Texas

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by walking. About 2.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Refugio County

• Car: 93.3%
• Walked: 3.7%
• Worked at Home: 2.4% unusually low
• Other: 0.5%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is essentially absent in Refugio County, versus 0.9% in Texas.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Refugio County, versus 0.2% in Texas.

Working from home is unusually rare in Refugio County: 5.9 times less than the Texas average (2.4% vs 14.4%).

Biking is essentially absent in Refugio County, versus 0.2% in Texas.

Commute Mode Trends in Refugio County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Refugio 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
• Walked
• Worked at Home
• Other
• Motorcycle
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Walked	Worked at Home	Other	Motorcycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	93.9%	4.0%	1.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2010	93.9%	3.3%	2.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2011	92.3%	3.5%	2.9%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2012	91.2%	3.3%	4.1%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2013	91.6%	3.0%	3.8%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2014	91.6%	3.5%	3.5%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	92.2%	4.2%	2.4%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	95.3%	2.3%	1.9%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	95.3%	2.3%	2.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	94.1%	2.8%	2.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	95.2%	1.7%	2.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	93.4%	3.5%	2.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	93.8%	3.4%	2.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	93.8%	4.2%	1.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	95.4%	2.1%	2.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	93.3%	3.7%	2.4%	0.5%	0.1%	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 was highest in 2023 at 95.4% and lowest in 2012 at 91.2%. Overall it fell from 93.9% in 2009 to 93.3% in 2024, down 0.6 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Refugio County: its share of workers rose from 1.5% in 2009 to 2.4% in 2024, up 0.9 percentage points.

Working from home peaked at 4.1% in 2012 and has since fallen back to 2.4%.

Commute Start Times in Refugio County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Refugio County?

The bars show when commuters in Refugio 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	12:00-4:59 AM Refugio County8.8% Texas5.5%	8.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Refugio County2.5% Texas4.4%	2.5%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Refugio County10.6% Texas5.1%	10.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Refugio County10.0% Texas9.3%	10.0%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Refugio County9.4% Texas9.3%	9.4%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Refugio County11.1% Texas15.3%	11.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Refugio County19.3% Texas11.8%	19.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Refugio County8.7% Texas11.5%	8.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Refugio County1.5% Texas4.8%	1.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Refugio County4.9% Texas6.7%	4.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Refugio County2.1% Texas3.1%	2.1%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Refugio County1.8% Texas1.3%	1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Refugio County3.2% Texas5.8%	3.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Refugio County6.1% Texas6.2%	6.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Refugio County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 19.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.8% across Texas. Early starts are more common than in Texas: 21.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush looks much like Texas's: 48.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.9% 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 Refugio 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 Refugio 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 Refugio 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.

• Refugio County
• Texas
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Refugio County	Texas	United States
2009	7:19 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:25 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:25 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:19 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:20 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:18 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:16 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:13 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:12 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:11 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:15 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:16 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:23 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:25 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:27 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:24 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Refugio County were on the road by 7:24 AM, 5 minutes later than in 2009 (7:19 AM). The shift is sharper than across Texas, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Refugio County now leave 14 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 Refugio County has moved 9 minutes later.

How does Refugio County's commute time compare?

Metric	Refugio County	Texas	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.7 min	22.8 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 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	2.4%	14.4%	15.0%
Walked	3.7%	1.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Refugio County is 13.7 minutes, shorter than the 22.8 minutes in Texas.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.9% in Texas. 3.7% commute by walking, higher than the 1.5% in Texas.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau