Sterling County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Sterling County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Sterling County spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 134 hours, about 5.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 30% less time on the road than the Texas average of 22.8 minutes each way, a difference of 6.8 minutes.

Sterling 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 Sterling County would save about 53 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,657 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)
Sterling County	16.0 min	32.1 min	134 hrs/yr	$4,143	52
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 16.0 minutes to get to work in Sterling County. That's 28% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Sterling County

• Car: 91.8%
• Worked at Home: 7.1%
• Walked: 1.1%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Other: < 0.1%

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Sterling County, versus 0.1% in Texas.

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

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Sterling County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Sterling 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
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle
• Other

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Other
2009	83.1%	12.4%	3.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%
2010	80.6%	16.3%	2.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%
2011	76.0%	20.6%	2.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.0%
2012	78.2%	16.5%	2.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	2.9%
2013	67.9%	27.9%	2.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.9%
2014	73.0%	21.8%	3.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.7%
2015	80.2%	14.3%	2.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	2.6%
2016	77.7%	14.6%	2.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	5.5%
2017	78.0%	11.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	9.4%
2018	82.5%	4.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	12.5%
2019	83.3%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	15.4%
2020	93.7%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	4.8%
2021	96.4%	2.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	88.9%	10.1%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	90.7%	8.0%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.8%	7.1%	1.1%	0.0%	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. Its share was highest in 2021 at 96.4% and lowest in 2013 at 67.9%. Overall it rose from 83.1% in 2009 to 91.8% in 2024, up 8.7 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 12.4% to 7.1% of workers (down 5.3 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Sterling County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Sterling County?

The bars show when commuters in Sterling 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 Sterling County4.3% Texas5.5%	4.3%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Sterling County6.3% Texas4.4%	6.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Sterling County1.6% Texas5.1%	1.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Sterling County13.8% Texas9.3%	13.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Sterling County5.3% Texas9.3%	5.3%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Sterling County25.0% Texas15.3%	25.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Sterling County14.9% Texas11.8%	14.9%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Sterling County16.3% Texas11.5%	16.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Sterling County7.3% Texas4.8%	7.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Sterling County3.7% Texas6.7%	3.7%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Sterling County1.2% Texas3.1%	1.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Sterling County0.0% Texas1.3%	0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Sterling County0.4% Texas5.8%	0.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Sterling County0.0% Texas6.2%	0.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Sterling County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 25.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across Texas. Early starts are less common than in Texas: 12.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Texas: 61.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.9% there. About 1 in 19 commuters (5.3%) 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 Sterling 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 Sterling 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 Sterling 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.

• Sterling County
• Texas
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Sterling County	Texas	United States
2009	7:09 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:10 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:18 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:24 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:26 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:25 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:26 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:11 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:04 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:04 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:04 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:18 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:24 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:32 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:20 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:23 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Sterling County were on the road by 7:23 AM, 13 minutes later than in 2009 (7:09 AM). The shift is sharper than across Texas, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Sterling County now leave 15 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 Sterling County has moved 19 minutes later.

How does Sterling County's commute time compare?

Metric	Sterling County	Texas	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.0 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.1%	14.4%	15.0%
Walked	1.1%	1.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Sterling County is 16.0 minutes, shorter than the 22.8 minutes in Texas.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.9% in Texas. 1.1% commute by walking, lower than the 1.5% in Texas.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau