Mason County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Mason County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Mason County spend about 64 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 266 hours, about 11.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 43% more time on the road than the Washington average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 9.6 minutes.

Mason County holds about 0.9% of Washington's population but accounts for roughly 1.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Mason County would save about 107 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,303 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)
Mason County	32.0 min	63.9 min	266 hrs/yr	$8,258	1,477
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 32.0 minutes to get to work in Mason County. That's 43% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slowest county in Washington

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 14.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Mason County

• Car: 82.6%
• Worked at Home: 14.5%
• Other: 1.0%
• Walked: 1.0%
• Public Transportation: 0.8% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Mason County, versus 0.2% in Washington.

Public transit is unusually rare in Mason County: 4.4 times less than the Washington average (0.8% vs 3.4%).

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

Biking is unusually rare in Mason County: 6.6 times less than the Washington average (0.1% vs 0.6%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Mason County: just 1.1%, 3.3 times below the Washington average of 3.7%.

Commute Mode Trends in Mason County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Mason 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
• Bicycle
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	89.3%	5.5%	2.3%	0.7%	1.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.6%
2010	90.3%	4.4%	2.6%	0.9%	1.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2011	91.5%	3.5%	2.5%	0.6%	1.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.5%
2012	91.6%	3.8%	2.2%	0.4%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%
2013	91.6%	4.1%	2.0%	0.3%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%
2014	91.6%	3.7%	1.9%	0.5%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.7%
2015	92.2%	3.7%	1.5%	0.2%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	1.0%
2016	91.2%	4.4%	1.4%	0.3%	2.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.7%
2017	90.5%	5.3%	0.9%	0.7%	2.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2018	90.1%	5.6%	1.4%	0.8%	1.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2019	89.7%	5.9%	1.5%	0.7%	1.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2020	89.3%	6.1%	1.6%	1.1%	1.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2021	88.2%	8.0%	1.5%	0.9%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2022	86.4%	9.9%	1.5%	0.9%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2023	84.3%	11.6%	1.4%	1.0%	1.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2024	82.6%	14.5%	1.0%	1.0%	0.8%	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 peaked in 2015 at 92.2%. Overall it fell from 89.3% in 2009 to 82.6% in 2024, down 6.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 9 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Mason County: its share of workers rose from 5.5% in 2009 to 14.5% in 2024, up 9.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.3% to 1.0% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Mason County

• 🌅 Dawn PatrolThe 3rd-highest share of pre-6 AM departures among Washington's 39 counties: 25.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Mason County?

The bars show when commuters in Mason 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 Mason County11.7% Washington7.1%	11.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Mason County6.0% Washington4.7%	6.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Mason County7.3% Washington5.8%	7.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Mason County10.1% Washington8.6%	10.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Mason County10.9% Washington9.5%	10.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Mason County13.5% Washington12.4%	13.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Mason County9.1% Washington11.0%	9.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Mason County6.8% Washington10.2%	6.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Mason County4.5% Washington5.5%	4.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Mason County3.2% Washington7.5%	3.2%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Mason County2.9% Washington3.5%	2.9%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Mason County0.7% Washington1.7%	0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Mason County7.9% Washington6.9%	7.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Mason County5.4% Washington5.6%	5.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Mason County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.4% across Washington. Early starts are more common than in Washington: 25.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Washington: 40.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.0%) 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 Mason 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 Mason 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 Mason 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.

• Mason County
• Washington
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Mason County	Washington	United States
2009	7:19 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:17 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:16 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:13 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:10 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:12 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:08 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:05 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:05 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:14 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:17 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:16 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:16 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:16 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:14 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:09 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Mason County were on the road by 7:09 AM, 10 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:19 AM). That goes against the trend across Washington, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Mason County now leave 29 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 Mason County has moved 8 minutes earlier.

How does Mason County's commute time compare?

Metric	Mason County	Washington	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	32.0 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	12:00 AM – 04:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	14.5%	19.8%	15.0%
Walked	1.0%	3.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.8%	3.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Mason County is 32.0 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Washington.

0.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.4% in Washington. 1.0% commute by walking, lower than the 3.0% in Washington.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau