Wise County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Wise County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Wise 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 154 hours, about 6.4 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 4.7 minutes.

Wise County holds about 0.4% of Virginia's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Wise County would save about 61 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,904 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)
Wise County	18.4 min	36.9 min	154 hrs/yr	$4,761	1,005
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 18.4 minutes to get to work in Wise County. That's 18% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 83% of counties in Virginia

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Wise County

• Car: 86.2%
• Worked at Home: 10.7%
• Walked: 2.3%
• Other: 0.6%
• Public Transportation: 0.2% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Public transit is unusually rare in Wise County: 14.5 times less than the Virginia average (0.2% vs 2.3%).

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Wise County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Wise 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	95.6%	1.6%	1.7%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	95.7%	1.9%	1.3%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	95.7%	1.8%	1.6%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	95.4%	1.9%	1.4%	0.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2013	95.4%	1.7%	1.8%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2014	95.5%	1.7%	1.8%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2015	95.1%	1.5%	1.9%	0.6%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	94.4%	2.4%	1.8%	0.3%	0.9%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	95.2%	1.9%	2.0%	0.1%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	94.9%	2.4%	1.9%	0.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	94.0%	2.6%	2.3%	0.2%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	93.8%	3.4%	2.2%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	92.2%	4.6%	2.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	89.5%	6.1%	3.9%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	88.1%	8.7%	2.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	86.2%	10.7%	2.3%	0.6%	0.2%	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 peaked in 2010 at 95.7%. Overall it fell from 95.6% in 2009 to 86.2% in 2024, down 9.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Wise County: its share of workers rose from 1.6% in 2009 to 10.7% in 2024, up 9.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2018 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 3.9% in 2022 and has since fallen back to 2.3%.

Commute Start Times in Wise County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Wise County?

The bars show when commuters in Wise 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 Wise County6.7% Virginia5.0%	6.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Wise County5.7% Virginia4.0%	5.7%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Wise County5.5% Virginia5.0%	5.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Wise County8.1% Virginia8.7%	8.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Wise County7.9% Virginia9.2%	7.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Wise County8.2% Virginia14.2%	8.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Wise County18.3% Virginia12.1%	18.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Wise County10.9% Virginia12.1%	10.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Wise County5.3% Virginia6.4%	5.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Wise County5.2% Virginia7.2%	5.2%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Wise County3.4% Virginia3.0%	3.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Wise County1.4% Virginia1.4%	1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Wise County6.0% Virginia6.0%	6.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Wise County7.5% Virginia5.7%	7.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Wise County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.1% across Virginia. Early starts are more common than in Virginia: 17.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Virginia: 45.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.5%) 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 Wise 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 Wise 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 Wise 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.

• Wise County
• Virginia
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Wise County	Virginia	United States
2009	7:49 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:47 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:47 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:46 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:47 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:45 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:45 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:45 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:49 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:49 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:49 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:51 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:53 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:47 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:41 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:43 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Wise County were on the road by 7:43 AM, 6 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:49 AM). That goes against the trend across Virginia, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Wise County now leave 5 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 Wise County has moved 6 minutes earlier.

How does Wise County's commute time compare?

Metric	Wise County	Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.4 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.7%	18.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.3%	2.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	2.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Wise County is 18.4 minutes, shorter than the 23.2 minutes in Virginia.

0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.3% in Virginia. 2.3% commute by walking, higher than the 2.1% in Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau