Polk County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Polk County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Polk County spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 193 hours, about 8.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 23% more time on the road than the Wisconsin average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 4.4 minutes.

Polk County holds about 0.8% of Wisconsin's population but accounts for roughly 1.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Polk County would save about 77 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,391 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)
Polk County	23.1 min	46.3 min	193 hrs/yr	$5,978	429
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 23.1 minutes to get to work in Polk County. That's 3% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 89% of counties in Wisconsin

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 11.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Polk County

• Car: 84.9%
• Worked at Home: 11.8%
• Walked: 2.1%
• Other: 0.8%
• Bicycle: 0.2% unusually low
• Motorcycle: 0.1%
• Taxi: < 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Polk County: 29.8 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.0% vs 1.1%).

Biking is unusually rare in Polk County: 3.1 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.2% vs 0.5%).

Commute Mode Trends in Polk County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Polk 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
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Public Transportation

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle	Public Transportation
2009	91.0%	4.9%	3.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2010	91.1%	4.6%	3.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	90.9%	5.1%	3.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2012	90.6%	5.4%	3.0%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.4%
2013	90.0%	5.8%	3.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2014	90.7%	5.6%	2.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2015	89.9%	5.9%	2.9%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2016	90.0%	5.7%	3.0%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2017	90.7%	5.2%	2.9%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	91.1%	4.8%	2.6%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	90.8%	5.2%	2.6%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	90.4%	6.3%	2.1%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	89.2%	7.8%	2.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	88.2%	8.8%	1.9%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	86.4%	10.4%	2.2%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2024	84.9%	11.8%	2.1%	0.8%	0.2%	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 2010 at 91.1%. Overall it fell from 91.0% in 2009 to 84.9% in 2024, down 6.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Polk County: its share of workers rose from 4.9% in 2009 to 11.8% in 2024, up 6.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.1% to 2.1% of workers (down 1.0 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Polk County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Polk County?

The bars show when commuters in Polk 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 Polk County9.8% Wisconsin6.9%	9.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Polk County8.7% Wisconsin4.7%	8.7%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Polk County7.9% Wisconsin6.1%	7.9%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Polk County7.6% Wisconsin8.5%	7.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Polk County11.0% Wisconsin10.4%	11.0%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Polk County12.7% Wisconsin14.7%	12.7%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Polk County13.0% Wisconsin12.7%	13.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Polk County6.5% Wisconsin9.0%	6.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Polk County3.5% Wisconsin4.0%	3.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Polk County3.3% Wisconsin4.7%	3.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Polk County1.8% Wisconsin2.4%	1.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Polk County0.7% Wisconsin1.3%	0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Polk County7.8% Wisconsin8.1%	7.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Polk County5.9% Wisconsin6.4%	5.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Polk County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 13.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.7% across Wisconsin. Early starts are more common than in Wisconsin: 26.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Wisconsin: 43.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.8% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.4%) 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 Polk 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 Polk 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 Polk 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.

• Polk County
• Wisconsin
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Polk County	Wisconsin	United States
2009	7:17 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:16 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:16 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:18 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:18 AM	7:31 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:15 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:14 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	7:11 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:11 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:12 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:13 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:14 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:12 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Polk County were on the road by 7:12 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:17 AM). Wisconsin followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Polk County now leave 26 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Polk County's commute time compare?

Metric	Polk County	Wisconsin	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.1 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	11.8%	13.1%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Polk County is 23.1 minutes, longer than the 18.8 minutes in Wisconsin.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Wisconsin. 2.1% commute by walking, lower than the 2.6% in Wisconsin.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau