Lafayette County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Lafayette County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Lafayette County spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 181 hours, about 7.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 16% more time on the road than the Wisconsin average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 3.0 minutes.

Lafayette 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 Lafayette County would save about 73 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,248 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)
Lafayette County	21.8 min	43.5 min	181 hrs/yr	$5,619	374
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 21.8 minutes to get to work in Lafayette County. That's 3% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 79% 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 12.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Lafayette County

• Car: 82.1%
• Worked at Home: 12.6%
• Walked: 3.5%
• Other: 1.5%
• Taxi: 0.1%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Lafayette County: 733673798.7 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Lafayette County: 15.0 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.1% vs 1.1%).

Biking is unusually rare in Lafayette County: 6.5 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.1% vs 0.5%).

Commute Mode Trends in Lafayette County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Lafayette 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
• Bicycle
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	85.4%	10.0%	3.1%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	85.2%	10.2%	3.3%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	86.6%	8.3%	3.7%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2012	86.2%	8.3%	4.1%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2013	85.8%	8.4%	4.5%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2014	84.2%	8.9%	5.3%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%	0.2%
2015	84.6%	8.6%	5.0%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.4%	0.2%
2016	84.9%	8.7%	4.9%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%
2017	84.2%	10.3%	4.1%	0.8%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	85.0%	10.0%	3.9%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	86.0%	9.4%	3.4%	0.9%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	85.6%	10.2%	3.1%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2021	84.1%	11.1%	3.5%	0.9%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	84.3%	10.5%	3.9%	1.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	82.2%	12.3%	4.0%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	82.1%	12.6%	3.5%	1.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2011 at 86.6%. Overall it fell from 85.4% in 2009 to 82.1% in 2024, down 3.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Lafayette County: its share of workers rose from 10.0% in 2009 to 12.6% in 2024, up 2.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking peaked at 5.3% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 3.5%.

Commute Start Times in Lafayette County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Lafayette County?

The bars show when commuters in Lafayette 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 Lafayette County9.7% Wisconsin6.9%	9.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Lafayette County7.3% Wisconsin4.7%	7.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Lafayette County6.2% Wisconsin6.1%	6.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Lafayette County11.3% Wisconsin8.5%	11.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Lafayette County10.7% Wisconsin10.4%	10.7%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Lafayette County17.2% Wisconsin14.7%	17.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Lafayette County13.4% Wisconsin12.7%	13.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Lafayette County6.9% Wisconsin9.0%	6.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Lafayette County1.7% Wisconsin4.0%	1.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Lafayette County3.3% Wisconsin4.7%	3.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Lafayette County1.7% Wisconsin2.4%	1.7%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Lafayette County0.7% Wisconsin1.3%	0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Lafayette County5.2% Wisconsin8.1%	5.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Lafayette County4.5% Wisconsin6.4%	4.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Lafayette County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.7% across Wisconsin. Early starts are more common than in Wisconsin: 23.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.7% there. The morning rush looks much like Wisconsin's: 48.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.8% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (15.4%) 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 Lafayette 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 Lafayette 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 Lafayette 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.

• Lafayette County
• Wisconsin
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Lafayette County	Wisconsin	United States
2009	7:10 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:12 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:13 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:13 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:14 AM	7:31 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:12 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:11 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:12 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:12 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:07 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:07 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:06 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:04 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:04 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:07 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:08 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Lafayette County were on the road by 7:08 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:10 AM). Across Wisconsin the shift was bigger still, with the typical start moving 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Lafayette County now leave 30 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 Lafayette County has moved 2 minutes later.

How does Lafayette County's commute time compare?

Metric	Lafayette County	Wisconsin	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.8 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	12.6%	13.1%	15.0%
Walked	3.5%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Lafayette County is 21.8 minutes, longer than the 18.8 minutes in Wisconsin.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Wisconsin. 3.5% commute by walking, higher than the 2.6% in Wisconsin.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau