Buffalo County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Buffalo County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Buffalo County spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 188 hours, about 7.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% more time on the road than the Wisconsin average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 3.8 minutes.

Buffalo County holds about 0.2% of Wisconsin's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Buffalo County would save about 75 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,335 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)
Buffalo County	22.6 min	45.2 min	188 hrs/yr	$5,837	451
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 22.6 minutes to get to work in Buffalo County. That's 1% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 86% of counties in Wisconsin

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 10.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Buffalo County

• Car: 85.1%
• Worked at Home: 10.0%
• Walked: 3.2%
• Other: 1.1%
• Bicycle: 0.5%
• Public Transportation: 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Buffalo County, versus 0.1% in Wisconsin.

Public transit is unusually rare in Buffalo County: 10.4 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.1% vs 1.1%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Buffalo County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Buffalo 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
• Bicycle
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	85.5%	8.2%	5.0%	0.8%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	84.6%	8.7%	5.7%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	85.3%	7.8%	5.8%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	85.2%	8.4%	5.2%	0.8%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	85.4%	8.2%	5.2%	0.8%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	86.3%	7.6%	5.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2015	87.5%	7.1%	4.1%	0.8%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	87.6%	7.6%	3.3%	1.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	88.8%	6.4%	3.1%	1.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	88.9%	6.7%	2.7%	1.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2019	88.0%	6.9%	3.4%	1.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2020	86.6%	7.4%	4.3%	1.1%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	86.0%	7.8%	4.7%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2022	86.0%	9.1%	3.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2023	85.0%	9.4%	4.0%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2024	85.1%	10.0%	3.2%	1.1%	0.5%	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 was highest in 2018 at 88.9% and lowest in 2010 at 84.6%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 85.5% in 2009 and 85.1% in 2024.

Working from home gained the most ground in Buffalo County: its share of workers rose from 8.2% in 2009 to 10.0% in 2024, up 1.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 5.0% to 3.2% of workers (down 1.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Buffalo County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Buffalo County?

The bars show when commuters in Buffalo 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	12:00-4:59 AM Buffalo County10.0% Wisconsin6.9%	10.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Buffalo County5.3% Wisconsin4.7%	5.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Buffalo County9.8% Wisconsin6.1%	9.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Buffalo County10.8% Wisconsin8.5%	10.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Buffalo County9.7% Wisconsin10.4%	9.7%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Buffalo County17.0% Wisconsin14.7%	17.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Buffalo County12.0% Wisconsin12.7%	12.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Buffalo County5.9% Wisconsin9.0%	5.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Buffalo County3.3% Wisconsin4.0%	3.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Buffalo County2.3% Wisconsin4.7%	2.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Buffalo County1.6% Wisconsin2.4%	1.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Buffalo County1.0% Wisconsin1.3%	1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Buffalo County7.2% Wisconsin8.1%	7.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Buffalo County4.3% Wisconsin6.4%	4.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Buffalo County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.7% across Wisconsin. Early starts are more common than in Wisconsin: 25.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Wisconsin: 44.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.8% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.3%) 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 Buffalo 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 Buffalo 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 Buffalo 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.

• Buffalo County
• Wisconsin
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Buffalo County	Wisconsin	United States
2009	7:11 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:12 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:14 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:17 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:19 AM	7:31 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:19 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:17 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:13 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:12 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:09 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:09 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:10 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:09 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:10 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:09 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:08 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Buffalo County were on the road by 7:08 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:11 AM). Wisconsin followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Buffalo County now leave 30 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Buffalo County in the whole series.

How does Buffalo County's commute time compare?

Metric	Buffalo County	Wisconsin	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.6 min	18.8 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	10.0%	13.1%	15.0%
Walked	3.2%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Buffalo County is 22.6 minutes, longer than the 18.8 minutes in Wisconsin.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Wisconsin. 3.2% commute by walking, higher than the 2.6% in Wisconsin.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau