Monroe County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Monroe County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Monroe County spend about 34 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 143 hours, about 6.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% less time on the road than the Wisconsin average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 1.6 minutes.

Monroe County holds about 0.8% of Wisconsin's population but accounts for roughly 0.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Monroe County would save about 57 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,778 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)
Monroe County	17.2 min	34.4 min	143 hrs/yr	$4,446	336
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 17.2 minutes to get to work in Monroe County. That's 23% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 70% of counties in Wisconsin

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Monroe County

• Car: 85.6%
• Worked at Home: 9.0%
• Walked: 2.6%
• Other: 1.5%
• Taxi: 0.7% unusually high
• Bicycle: 0.5%
• Public Transportation: 0.2% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Monroe County: 5.7 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Monroe County: 6.8 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.2% vs 1.1%).

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Monroe County: 3.8 times more than the Wisconsin average (0.7% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Monroe County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Motorcycle
2009	87.9%	6.4%	3.6%	0.8%	0.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.4%
2010	88.3%	6.4%	3.4%	0.6%	0.3%	0.4%	0.3%	0.4%
2011	88.6%	5.9%	3.0%	0.8%	0.4%	0.2%	0.5%	0.5%
2012	88.8%	5.1%	3.1%	0.9%	0.6%	0.3%	0.4%	0.7%
2013	89.6%	4.4%	3.1%	1.0%	0.7%	0.2%	0.4%	0.6%
2014	90.5%	4.0%	2.8%	1.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.3%	0.6%
2015	90.4%	3.7%	2.8%	1.1%	0.8%	0.2%	0.3%	0.6%
2016	90.8%	3.9%	2.9%	1.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.7%
2017	90.1%	4.6%	3.2%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.5%
2018	89.3%	5.2%	3.3%	1.1%	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%	0.4%
2019	88.2%	5.7%	3.3%	1.3%	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%	0.3%
2020	86.4%	7.3%	3.5%	1.5%	0.3%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%
2021	86.1%	7.5%	3.7%	1.6%	0.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	86.7%	8.2%	2.8%	1.4%	0.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	86.6%	8.3%	2.6%	1.4%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	85.6%	9.0%	2.6%	1.5%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2016 at 90.8%. Overall it fell from 87.9% in 2009 to 85.6% in 2024, down 2.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Monroe County: its share of workers rose from 6.4% in 2009 to 9.0% in 2024, up 2.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.6% to 2.6% of workers (down 1.0 percentage points).

Taking a taxi overtook riding a motorcycle to become the 5th most common choice in the 2019 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Monroe County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Monroe County?

The bars show when commuters in Monroe 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 Monroe County8.8% Wisconsin6.9%	8.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Monroe County5.3% Wisconsin4.7%	5.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Monroe County9.3% Wisconsin6.1%	9.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Monroe County10.7% Wisconsin8.5%	10.7%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Monroe County11.3% Wisconsin10.4%	11.3%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Monroe County17.0% Wisconsin14.7%	17.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Monroe County10.1% Wisconsin12.7%	10.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Monroe County7.4% Wisconsin9.0%	7.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Monroe County2.5% Wisconsin4.0%	2.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Monroe County2.8% Wisconsin4.7%	2.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Monroe County1.4% Wisconsin2.4%	1.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Monroe County0.7% Wisconsin1.3%	0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Monroe County7.2% Wisconsin8.1%	7.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Monroe County5.6% Wisconsin6.4%	5.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Monroe 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: 23.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.7% there. The morning rush looks much like Wisconsin's: 45.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.8% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.7%) 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 Monroe 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 Monroe 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 Monroe 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.

• Monroe County
• Wisconsin
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Monroe County	Wisconsin	United States
2009	7:15 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:13 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:13 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:15 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:17 AM	7:31 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:17 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:16 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:14 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:13 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:11 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:08 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:04 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:08 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:08 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 Monroe County were on the road by 7:08 AM, 6 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:15 AM). The shift is sharper than across Wisconsin, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Monroe County now leave 30 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Monroe County's commute time compare?

Metric	Monroe County	Wisconsin	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.2 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	9.0%	13.1%	15.0%
Walked	2.6%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Monroe County is 17.2 minutes, shorter than the 18.8 minutes in Wisconsin.

0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Wisconsin. The share of commuters using walking is about the same as Wisconsin.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau