Smyth County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Smyth County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Smyth 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 155 hours, about 6.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% less time on the road than the Virginia average of 23.2 minutes each way, a difference of 4.6 minutes.

Smyth County holds about 0.3% of Virginia's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Smyth County would save about 62 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,920 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)
Smyth County	18.6 min	37.2 min	155 hrs/yr	$4,800	652
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 18.6 minutes to get to work in Smyth County. That's 17% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 81% of counties in Virginia

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 6.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Smyth County

• Car: 92.3% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 6.1% unusually low
• Other: 0.8%
• Walked: 0.6% unusually low
• Bicycle: 0.2%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Driving is 22% more common in Smyth County than the Virginia average (92.3% vs 75.6%).

Walking is unusually rare in Smyth County: 3.5 times less than the Virginia average (0.6% vs 2.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Smyth County: 45.5 times less than the Virginia average (0.1% vs 2.3%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Smyth County: 5.1 times less than the Virginia average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Working from home is unusually rare in Smyth County: 3.0 times less than the Virginia average (6.1% vs 18.3%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Smyth County: just 0.7%, 3.1 times below the Virginia average of 2.3%.

Commute Mode Trends in Smyth County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	95.5%	1.4%	1.1%	1.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	95.2%	1.5%	1.6%	1.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	94.7%	1.7%	1.7%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	94.3%	1.6%	2.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	94.6%	1.5%	1.9%	1.2%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	94.5%	2.1%	1.4%	1.1%	0.0%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%
2015	94.6%	2.4%	0.8%	0.9%	0.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	94.0%	2.4%	1.1%	1.3%	0.0%	1.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	94.3%	3.0%	0.6%	1.5%	0.0%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	93.0%	3.1%	1.0%	2.0%	0.0%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%
2019	92.8%	3.2%	1.0%	2.0%	0.0%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	91.8%	3.7%	1.1%	2.2%	0.0%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	91.1%	4.7%	1.0%	2.2%	0.0%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	91.4%	5.2%	0.8%	1.8%	0.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	92.6%	6.1%	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	92.3%	6.1%	0.8%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share bottomed out in 2021 at 91.1%. Overall it fell from 95.5% in 2009 to 92.3% in 2024, down 3.2 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Smyth County: its share of workers rose from 1.4% in 2009 to 6.1% in 2024, up 4.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.4% to 0.6% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Smyth County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Smyth County?

The bars show when commuters in Smyth 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 Smyth County6.9% Virginia5.0%	6.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Smyth County6.1% Virginia4.0%	6.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Smyth County4.7% Virginia5.0%	4.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Smyth County8.1% Virginia8.7%	8.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Smyth County10.6% Virginia9.2%	10.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Smyth County12.5% Virginia14.2%	12.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Smyth County13.4% Virginia12.1%	13.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Smyth County11.2% Virginia12.1%	11.2%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Smyth County4.2% Virginia6.4%	4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Smyth County3.3% Virginia7.2%	3.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Smyth County1.3% Virginia3.0%	1.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Smyth County0.5% Virginia1.4%	0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Smyth County8.8% Virginia6.0%	8.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Smyth County8.4% Virginia5.7%	8.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Smyth County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 13.4% 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 looks much like Virginia's: 47.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.3%) 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 Smyth 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 Smyth 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 Smyth 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.

• Smyth County
• Virginia
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Smyth County	Virginia	United States
2009	7:40 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:38 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:37 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:38 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:39 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:39 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:39 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:37 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:40 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:35 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:34 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:35 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:28 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:32 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Smyth County were on the road by 7:32 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:40 AM). That goes against the trend across Virginia, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Smyth 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 Smyth County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Smyth County's commute time compare?

Metric	Smyth County	Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.6 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	6.1%	18.3%	15.0%
Walked	0.6%	2.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	2.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Smyth County is 18.6 minutes, shorter than the 23.2 minutes in Virginia.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.3% in Virginia. 0.6% commute by walking, lower than the 2.1% in Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau