Richland County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Richland County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Richland County spend about 36 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 151 hours, about 6.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 3% less time on the road than the Wisconsin average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 0.6 minutes.

Richland 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 Richland County would save about 61 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,878 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)
Richland County	18.2 min	36.4 min	151 hrs/yr	$4,695	275
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 18.2 minutes to get to work in Richland County. That's 19% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 8.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Richland County

• Car: 87.3%
• Worked at Home: 8.9%
• Walked: 2.3%
• Other: 0.7%
• Taxi: 0.6% unusually high
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Richland County: 29.0 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.0% vs 1.1%).

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Richland County: 3.6 times more than the Wisconsin average (0.6% vs 0.2%).

Biking is essentially absent in Richland County, versus 0.5% in Wisconsin.

Commute Mode Trends in Richland County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Richland 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
• Motorcycle
• Public Transportation
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle	Public Transportation	Bicycle
2009	84.4%	9.2%	4.9%	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%
2010	83.8%	9.0%	5.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.7%	0.2%
2011	85.6%	8.2%	4.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.4%	0.2%
2012	86.7%	7.6%	4.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.6%	0.1%
2013	87.9%	6.7%	4.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%	0.1%
2014	88.8%	5.9%	4.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2015	89.0%	6.1%	3.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%	0.2%
2016	89.4%	5.7%	3.0%	0.5%	0.3%	0.3%	0.6%	0.2%
2017	88.8%	5.8%	3.4%	0.6%	0.3%	0.3%	0.6%	0.3%
2018	88.5%	5.9%	3.2%	0.5%	0.5%	0.3%	0.7%	0.4%
2019	88.7%	5.4%	3.1%	0.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.8%	0.5%
2020	88.1%	6.6%	3.0%	0.5%	0.3%	0.3%	0.8%	0.3%
2021	88.0%	7.3%	2.9%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%	0.6%	0.4%
2022	88.0%	7.5%	2.8%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.5%	0.2%
2023	87.5%	8.2%	2.7%	0.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	87.3%	8.9%	2.3%	0.7%	0.6%	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 2016 at 89.4% and lowest in 2010 at 83.8%. Overall it rose from 84.4% in 2009 to 87.3% in 2024, up 2.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Taking a taxi gained the most ground in Richland County: its share of workers rose from 0.0% in 2009 to 0.6% in 2024, up 0.6 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 4.9% to 2.3% of workers (down 2.6 percentage points).

Taking a taxi overtook riding a motorcycle to become the 5th most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Richland County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Richland County?

The bars show when commuters in Richland 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 Richland County11.6% Wisconsin6.9%	11.6%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Richland County6.5% Wisconsin4.7%	6.5%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Richland County5.5% Wisconsin6.1%	5.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Richland County8.5% Wisconsin8.5%	8.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Richland County9.6% Wisconsin10.4%	9.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Richland County14.7% Wisconsin14.7%	14.7%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Richland County12.2% Wisconsin12.7%	12.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Richland County6.6% Wisconsin9.0%	6.6%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Richland County2.7% Wisconsin4.0%	2.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Richland County4.3% Wisconsin4.7%	4.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Richland County2.1% Wisconsin2.4%	2.1%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Richland County0.6% Wisconsin1.3%	0.6%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Richland County8.0% Wisconsin8.1%	8.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Richland County7.1% Wisconsin6.4%	7.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Richland County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.7% across Wisconsin. Early starts are more common than in Wisconsin: 23.6% 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 (22.1%) 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 Richland 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 Richland 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 Richland 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.

• Richland County
• Wisconsin
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Richland County	Wisconsin	United States
2009	7:22 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:22 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:23 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:20 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:25 AM	7:31 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:29 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:28 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:28 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:27 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:21 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:18 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:19 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:18 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:16 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:18 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:17 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Richland County were on the road by 7:17 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:22 AM). Wisconsin followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Richland County now leave 21 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Richland County's commute time compare?

Metric	Richland County	Wisconsin	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.2 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.9%	13.1%	15.0%
Walked	2.3%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Richland County is 18.2 minutes, shorter than the 18.8 minutes in Wisconsin.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Wisconsin. 2.3% commute by walking, lower than the 2.6% in Wisconsin.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau