Buchanan County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Buchanan County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Buchanan County spend about 53 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 222 hours, about 9.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 15% more time on the road than the Virginia average of 23.2 minutes each way, a difference of 3.5 minutes.

Buchanan County holds about 0.2% of Virginia's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Buchanan County would save about 89 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,753 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)
Buchanan County	26.6 min	53.3 min	222 hrs/yr	$6,882	191
Virginia	23.2 min	46.3 min	193 hrs/yr	$5,986	1,531
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: Virginia Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 26.6 minutes to get to work in Buchanan County. That's 19% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 working from home. About 6.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Buchanan County

• Car: 91.8% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 6.5%
• Other: 0.9%
• Public Transportation: 0.5% unusually low
• Walked: 0.3% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Buchanan County, versus 0.1% in Virginia.

Driving is 21% more common in Buchanan County than the Virginia average (91.8% vs 75.6%).

Walking is unusually rare in Buchanan County: 6.4 times less than the Virginia average (0.3% vs 2.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Buchanan County: 4.7 times less than the Virginia average (0.5% vs 2.3%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Buchanan County, versus 0.2% in Virginia.

Biking is essentially absent in Buchanan County, versus 0.3% in Virginia.

Few people walk or bike to work in Buchanan County: just 0.3%, 7.2 times below the Virginia average of 2.3%.

Commute Mode Trends in Buchanan County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Buchanan 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
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Walked
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Public Transportation	Walked	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	93.0%	2.4%	1.2%	1.8%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	94.4%	3.2%	0.9%	0.3%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	95.0%	2.6%	0.3%	0.7%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	96.1%	1.6%	0.2%	0.3%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	96.4%	0.8%	0.7%	0.2%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2014	96.5%	1.0%	0.8%	0.3%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	96.2%	0.7%	1.0%	0.5%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2016	96.0%	0.7%	0.9%	0.6%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2017	94.6%	0.9%	1.7%	0.6%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2018	95.3%	0.9%	2.1%	0.5%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	92.6%	1.4%	2.7%	0.9%	2.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	91.4%	2.8%	2.6%	0.7%	2.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	90.9%	2.7%	3.2%	0.6%	2.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	93.1%	2.6%	1.8%	0.8%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	91.4%	4.5%	1.9%	0.7%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.8%	6.5%	0.9%	0.5%	0.3%	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 2014 at 96.5% and lowest in 2021 at 90.9%. Overall it fell from 93.0% in 2009 to 91.8% in 2024, down 1.2 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Buchanan County: its share of workers rose from 2.4% in 2009 to 6.5% in 2024, up 4.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.8% to 0.5% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Walking peaked at 2.7% in 2021 and has since fallen back to 0.3%.

Commute Start Times in Buchanan County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Buchanan County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Buchanan County7.0% Virginia5.0%	7.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Buchanan County4.9% Virginia4.0%	4.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Buchanan County5.7% Virginia5.0%	5.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Buchanan County4.2% Virginia8.7%	4.2%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Buchanan County7.4% Virginia9.2%	7.4%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Buchanan County12.3% Virginia14.2%	12.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Buchanan County15.4% Virginia12.1%	15.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Buchanan County9.5% Virginia12.1%	9.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Buchanan County2.9% Virginia6.4%	2.9%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Buchanan County3.5% Virginia7.2%	3.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Buchanan County3.5% Virginia3.0%	3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Buchanan County1.6% Virginia1.4%	1.6%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Buchanan County11.7% Virginia6.0%	11.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Buchanan County10.2% Virginia5.7%	10.2%

Buchanan County Virginia Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Buchanan County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 15.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.1% across Virginia. Early starts are more common than in Virginia: 17.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Virginia: 44.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.5%) 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 Buchanan 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 Buchanan 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 Buchanan County next to Virginia 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.

• Buchanan County
• Virginia
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Buchanan County	Virginia	United States
2009	7:32 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:36 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:37 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:39 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:40 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:39 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:31 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:39 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:41 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:39 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:43 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:38 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:35 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:42 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:46 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Buchanan County were on the road by 7:46 AM, 14 minutes later than in 2009 (7:32 AM). The shift is sharper than across Virginia, where the typical start moved 3 minutes later. Commuters in Buchanan County now leave 8 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Buchanan County has moved 7 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Buchanan County in the whole series.

How does Buchanan County's commute time compare?

Metric	Buchanan County	Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	26.6 min	23.2 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	6.5%	18.3%	15.0%
Walked	0.3%	2.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.5%	2.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Buchanan County is 26.6 minutes, longer than the 23.2 minutes in Virginia.

0.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.3% in Virginia. 0.3% commute by walking, lower than the 2.1% in Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau