Yakima County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Yakima County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Yakima County spend about 35 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 146 hours, about 6.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 22% less time on the road than the Washington average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 4.8 minutes.

Yakima County holds about 3.3% of Washington's population but accounts for roughly 2.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Yakima County would save about 59 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,815 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)
Yakima County	17.6 min	35.1 min	146 hrs/yr	$4,538	1,255
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 17.6 minutes to get to work in Yakima County. That's 22% shorter 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 7.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Yakima County

• Car: 90.2% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 7.3%
• Walked: 1.2%
• Other: 0.6%
• Public Transportation: 0.3% unusually low
• Bicycle: 0.2% unusually low
• Motorcycle: 0.1%
• Taxi: < 0.1%

Driving is 25% more common in Yakima County than the Washington average (90.2% vs 71.9%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Yakima County: 13.0 times less than the Washington average (0.3% vs 3.4%).

Biking is unusually rare in Yakima County: 3.1 times less than the Washington average (0.2% vs 0.6%).

Commute Mode Trends in Yakima County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Yakima 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	91.8%	3.5%	2.5%	0.8%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	91.5%	3.8%	2.4%	1.0%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	91.1%	3.8%	2.4%	1.0%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2012	91.5%	3.9%	2.2%	1.0%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2013	91.7%	3.9%	1.9%	1.1%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2014	92.5%	3.4%	1.7%	0.9%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	92.6%	3.7%	1.8%	0.6%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	92.5%	3.8%	1.7%	0.7%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
2017	92.8%	3.7%	1.6%	0.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	92.9%	3.5%	1.7%	0.8%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2019	92.9%	3.5%	1.8%	0.9%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	92.9%	4.2%	1.3%	0.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	92.4%	4.8%	1.3%	0.8%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2022	91.7%	5.4%	1.4%	0.8%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2023	91.0%	6.4%	1.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2024	90.2%	7.3%	1.2%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2018 at 92.9%. Overall it fell from 91.8% in 2009 to 90.2% in 2024, down 1.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 4 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Yakima County: its share of workers rose from 3.5% in 2009 to 7.3% in 2024, up 3.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.5% to 1.2% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Yakima County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Yakima County?

The bars show when commuters in Yakima 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 Yakima County8.7% Washington7.1%	8.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Yakima County6.2% Washington4.7%	6.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Yakima County7.3% Washington5.8%	7.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Yakima County11.3% Washington8.6%	11.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Yakima County10.9% Washington9.5%	10.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Yakima County13.3% Washington12.4%	13.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Yakima County13.5% Washington11.0%	13.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Yakima County6.1% Washington10.2%	6.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Yakima County3.4% Washington5.5%	3.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Yakima County4.2% Washington7.5%	4.2%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Yakima County2.4% Washington3.5%	2.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Yakima County1.1% Washington1.7%	1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Yakima County5.5% Washington6.9%	5.5%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Yakima County6.1% Washington5.6%	6.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Yakima County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 13.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.0% 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 looks much like Washington's: 43.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.2%) 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 Yakima 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 Yakima 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 Yakima 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.

• Yakima County
• Washington
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Yakima County	Washington	United States
2009	7:22 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:21 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:23 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:24 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:23 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:21 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:17 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:17 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:15 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:14 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:15 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:14 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:14 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:14 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:13 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Yakima County were on the road by 7:13 AM, 9 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:22 AM). That goes against the trend across Washington, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Yakima County now leave 25 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Yakima County in the whole series.

How does Yakima County's commute time compare?

Metric	Yakima County	Washington	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.6 min	22.4 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.3%	19.8%	15.0%
Walked	1.2%	3.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	3.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Yakima County is 17.6 minutes, shorter than the 22.4 minutes in Washington.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.4% in Washington. 1.2% commute by walking, lower than the 3.0% in Washington.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau