Cowlitz County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Cowlitz County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Cowlitz County spend about 38 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 157 hours, about 6.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 16% less time on the road than the Washington average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 3.5 minutes.

Cowlitz County holds about 1.4% of Washington's population but accounts for roughly 1.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Cowlitz County would save about 63 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,949 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)
Cowlitz County	18.9 min	37.7 min	157 hrs/yr	$4,872	914
Washington	22.4 min	44.8 min	187 hrs/yr	$5,785	1,525
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: Washington Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 18.9 minutes to get to work in Cowlitz County. That's 16% 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 8.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Cowlitz County

• Car: 89.6% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 8.2%
• Walked: 0.9% unusually low
• Other: 0.8%
• Public Transportation: 0.4% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Cowlitz County: 4.2 times less than the Washington average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Driving is 25% more common in Cowlitz County than the Washington average (89.6% vs 71.9%).

Walking is unusually rare in Cowlitz County: 3.5 times less than the Washington average (0.9% vs 3.0%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Cowlitz County: 7.8 times less than the Washington average (0.4% vs 3.4%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Cowlitz County, versus 0.1% in Washington.

Biking is unusually rare in Cowlitz County: 26.8 times less than the Washington average (0.0% vs 0.6%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Cowlitz County: just 0.9%, 4.1 times below the Washington average of 3.7%.

Commute Mode Trends in Cowlitz County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Cowlitz 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	93.0%	3.1%	1.9%	1.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
2010	93.1%	2.9%	1.7%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.8%
2011	93.2%	2.9%	1.9%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.4%
2012	92.5%	3.3%	1.9%	1.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.6%
2013	92.5%	3.4%	1.7%	1.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.4%	0.6%
2014	92.1%	3.8%	1.7%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.7%	0.6%
2015	91.6%	4.8%	1.7%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%	0.6%
2016	91.1%	4.9%	2.1%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.4%	0.5%
2017	91.5%	4.8%	2.3%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%	0.3%
2018	91.1%	5.1%	2.3%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.4%
2019	91.8%	4.7%	2.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2020	92.0%	4.5%	2.1%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.4%
2021	90.7%	6.0%	1.7%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.5%
2022	89.4%	6.9%	1.6%	1.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2023	89.8%	7.3%	1.0%	1.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2024	89.6%	8.2%	0.9%	0.8%	0.4%	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 2011 at 93.2% and lowest in 2022 at 89.4%. Overall it fell from 93.0% in 2009 to 89.6% in 2024, down 3.4 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Cowlitz County: its share of workers rose from 3.1% in 2009 to 8.2% in 2024, up 5.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.9% to 0.9% of workers (down 1.0 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Cowlitz County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Cowlitz County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Cowlitz County9.1% Washington7.1%	9.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Cowlitz County6.6% Washington4.7%	6.6%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Cowlitz County6.5% Washington5.8%	6.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Cowlitz County10.3% Washington8.6%	10.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Cowlitz County9.1% Washington9.5%	9.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Cowlitz County12.0% Washington12.4%	12.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Cowlitz County11.1% Washington11.0%	11.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Cowlitz County7.8% Washington10.2%	7.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Cowlitz County4.2% Washington5.5%	4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Cowlitz County5.6% Washington7.5%	5.6%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Cowlitz County2.7% Washington3.5%	2.7%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Cowlitz County1.3% Washington1.7%	1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Cowlitz County6.2% Washington6.9%	6.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Cowlitz County7.5% Washington5.6%	7.5%

Cowlitz County Washington Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Cowlitz County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 12.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.4% across Washington. Early starts are more common than in Washington: 22.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Washington: 40.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.3%) 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 Cowlitz 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 Cowlitz 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 Cowlitz County next to Washington 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.

• Cowlitz County
• Washington
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Cowlitz County	Washington	United States
2009	7:31 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:29 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:30 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:33 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:34 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:34 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:30 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:27 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:27 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:23 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:21 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:19 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:19 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:24 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Cowlitz County were on the road by 7:21 AM, 10 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:31 AM). That goes against the trend across Washington, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Cowlitz County now leave 17 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 Cowlitz County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Cowlitz County's commute time compare?

Metric	Cowlitz County	Washington	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.9 min	22.4 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	8.2%	19.8%	15.0%
Walked	0.9%	3.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.4%	3.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Cowlitz County is 18.9 minutes, shorter than the 22.4 minutes in Washington.

0.4% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.4% in Washington. 0.9% commute by walking, lower than the 3.0% in Washington.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau