Bayfield County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Bayfield County, Wisconsin: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 8:08 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Bayfield County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:08 PM

Commute Time Burden in Bayfield County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Bayfield 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 156 hours, about 6.5 full days, spent commuting. That is about the same time on the road as the Wisconsin average of 18.8 minutes each way.

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

Working from home just 2 days a week in Bayfield County would save about 62 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,929 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)
Bayfield County	18.7 min	37.3 min	156 hrs/yr	$4,823	222
Wisconsin	18.8 min	37.5 min	156 hrs/yr	$4,846	811
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: Wisconsin Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Wisconsin

Ashland County (12.8 min)
Door County (13.6 min)
Eau Claire County (15.3 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Wisconsin

Oconto County (26.4 min)
St. Croix County (25.3 min)
Waushara County (23.9 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Bayfield County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 18.7 minutes to get to work in Bayfield County. That's 17% 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 13.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Bayfield County

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Bayfield County: 3.8 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Bayfield County, versus 0.2% in Wisconsin.

Commute Mode Trends in Bayfield County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Bayfield 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.

Share of workers aged 16 and over, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	85.2%	8.0%	5.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	86.3%	7.7%	4.3%	0.4%	0.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	86.3%	8.1%	4.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	84.9%	7.7%	5.3%	0.5%	0.5%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	85.1%	7.2%	5.2%	0.9%	0.5%	1.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	85.7%	6.9%	5.1%	0.9%	0.6%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	85.8%	6.8%	4.7%	1.2%	0.7%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	86.4%	6.2%	4.5%	1.3%	0.7%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	86.1%	6.5%	4.0%	2.2%	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	86.9%	6.4%	3.6%	1.7%	0.5%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	85.3%	7.7%	3.5%	2.3%	0.4%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	85.0%	9.0%	3.3%	1.6%	0.2%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	83.5%	10.0%	3.0%	2.4%	0.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	82.3%	11.8%	3.2%	1.2%	0.4%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	81.4%	13.1%	3.4%	1.0%	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	80.7%	13.4%	3.6%	0.8%	0.8%	0.6%	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 2018 at 86.9%. Overall it fell from 85.2% in 2009 to 80.7% in 2024, down 4.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Bayfield County: its share of workers rose from 8.0% in 2009 to 13.4% in 2024, up 5.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 5.5% to 3.6% of workers (down 1.9 percentage points).

Public transit peaked at 2.4% in 2021 and has since fallen back to 0.8%.

Commute Start Times in Bayfield County

Rush-Hour RegularsThe 2nd-highest share of rush-hour departures among Wisconsin's 72 counties: 56.0% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Bayfield County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		3.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.5%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		20.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.2%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.9%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.8%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.6%
4:00-11:59 PM		4.2%

Bayfield County Wisconsin Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Bayfield County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 20.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.7% across Wisconsin. Early starts are less common than in Wisconsin: 11.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Wisconsin: 56.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.8% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.7%) 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 Bayfield 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 Bayfield 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 Bayfield County next to Wisconsin 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.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Bayfield County	Wisconsin	United States
2009	7:34 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:32 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:33 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:31 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:29 AM	7:31 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:30 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:31 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:29 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:31 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:34 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:32 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:34 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:34 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:36 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:36 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:37 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Bayfield County were on the road by 7:37 AM, 4 minutes later than in 2009 (7:34 AM). That goes against the trend across Wisconsin, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Bayfield County now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Bayfield County has moved 5 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Bayfield County in the whole series.

How does Bayfield County's commute time compare?

Metric	Bayfield County	Wisconsin	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.7 min	18.8 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	13.4%	13.1%	15.0%
Walked	3.6%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.8%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Bayfield County is about the same as in Wisconsin.

0.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Wisconsin. 3.6% commute by walking, higher than the 2.6% in Wisconsin.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Bayfield County, WI Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Bayfield County, WI is typical in size for this group, 16,575 residents against a local median of 16,854, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Bayfield County, WI sits close to the middle of its own neighbourhood. No measure below is more than 15% off the local median, so the choice between these counties turns on things this data does not capture.

The largest of those small differences is work from home, 6% above the local median at 13.4% against 12.6%. Bayfield County, WI has the highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Bayfield County, WI	16,575	18.7 min #4/6	13.4% #1/6	7:37 AM #6/6
Ashland County, WI	16,080	12.8 min	9.7%	7:36 AM
Douglas County, WI	44,229	18.1 min	9.1%	7:29 AM
Sawyer County, WI	18,476	16.6 min	12.7%	7:34 AM
Lake County, MN	10,879	20.9 min	13.2%	7:26 AM
Washburn County, WI	16,854	20.4 min	12.6%	7:26 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.

Is commuting expensive in Bayfield County, Wisconsin?

Commuters here spend an estimated 156 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,823 at a typical national wage.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Bayfield County, Wisconsin?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Bayfield County, Wisconsin. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Which counties in Wisconsin have the fastest and slowest commutes?

Among counties in Wisconsin, the shortest average commutes are in Ashland County (12.8 min), Door County (13.6 min), Eau Claire County (15.3 min). The longest are in Oconto County (26.4 min), St. Croix County (25.3 min), Waushara County (23.9 min).