Starr County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Starr County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Starr County spend about 34 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 142 hours, about 5.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 25% less time on the road than the Texas average of 22.8 minutes each way, a difference of 5.8 minutes.

Starr County holds about 0.2% of Texas's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Starr County would save about 57 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,755 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)
Starr County	17.0 min	34.0 min	142 hrs/yr	$4,387	331
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 17.0 minutes to get to work in Starr County. That's 24% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Starr County

• Car: 84.6%
• Worked at Home: 9.3%
• Walked: 3.7%
• Other: 2.3%
• 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 Starr County, versus 0.1% in Texas.

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

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Starr County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Starr 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	90.0%	4.4%	4.0%	1.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	89.3%	4.4%	4.3%	1.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	87.2%	5.3%	4.0%	2.8%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	86.4%	5.3%	5.3%	2.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	87.1%	5.3%	4.6%	2.5%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	88.1%	6.0%	4.0%	1.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	89.2%	4.6%	4.5%	1.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	90.0%	4.8%	4.2%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	89.1%	5.2%	4.5%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	89.1%	5.5%	4.7%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	88.1%	7.2%	4.0%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	86.9%	7.9%	4.2%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	86.8%	7.3%	4.5%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	86.4%	8.6%	3.8%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	85.8%	9.1%	3.3%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	84.6%	9.3%	3.7%	2.3%	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. Overall its share fell from 90.0% in 2009 to 84.6% in 2024, down 5.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Starr County: its share of workers rose from 4.4% in 2009 to 9.3% in 2024, up 4.9 percentage points.

Walking peaked at 5.3% in 2012 and has since fallen back to 3.7%.

Commute Start Times in Starr County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Starr County?

The bars show when commuters in Starr 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 Starr County3.8% Texas5.5%	3.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Starr County4.7% Texas4.4%	4.7%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Starr County4.0% Texas5.1%	4.0%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Starr County7.7% Texas9.3%	7.7%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Starr County9.7% Texas9.3%	9.7%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Starr County19.1% Texas15.3%	19.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Starr County16.7% Texas11.8%	16.7%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Starr County12.5% Texas11.5%	12.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Starr County3.1% Texas4.8%	3.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Starr County2.9% Texas6.7%	2.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Starr County3.5% Texas3.1%	3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Starr County0.9% Texas1.3%	0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Starr County6.1% Texas5.8%	6.1%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Starr County5.3% Texas6.2%	5.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Starr County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 19.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across Texas. Early starts are less common than in Texas: 12.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Texas: 58.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.9% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.7%) 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 Starr 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 Starr 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 Starr 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.

• Starr County
• Texas
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Starr County	Texas	United States
2009	7:42 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:40 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:38 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:40 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:41 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:43 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:40 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:40 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:39 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:40 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:38 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:40 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:37 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:37 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:34 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:32 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Starr County were on the road by 7:32 AM, 10 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:42 AM). That goes against the trend across Texas, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Starr County now leave 6 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 Starr County has moved 6 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Starr County in the whole series.

How does Starr County's commute time compare?

Metric	Starr County	Texas	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.0 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	9.3%	14.4%	15.0%
Walked	3.7%	1.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Starr County is 17.0 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