Rusk County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Rusk County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Rusk County spend about 38 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 158 hours, about 6.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% more time on the road than the Wisconsin average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 0.2 minutes.

Rusk County holds about 0.2% of Wisconsin's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Rusk County would save about 63 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,961 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)
Rusk County	19.0 min	38.0 min	158 hrs/yr	$4,902	514
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 19.0 minutes to get to work in Rusk County. That's 15% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 9.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Rusk County

• Car: 88.2%
• Worked at Home: 9.2%
• Walked: 1.7%
• Other: 0.5%
• Public Transportation: 0.3% unusually low
• Motorcycle: 0.2%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Rusk County: 4.0 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.3% vs 1.1%).

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Rusk County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Rusk 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
• Motorcycle
• Taxi
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	84.2%	8.1%	4.4%	2.0%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	86.4%	7.5%	3.9%	1.3%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	87.1%	6.8%	4.3%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	87.5%	7.2%	3.8%	1.0%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	87.8%	7.0%	4.2%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	87.3%	7.5%	4.2%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	86.8%	7.6%	4.5%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	86.2%	7.7%	5.0%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	86.7%	7.5%	4.6%	0.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	87.5%	6.7%	4.5%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	87.3%	7.5%	4.1%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	86.8%	8.7%	3.3%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2021	87.2%	8.5%	3.1%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	87.7%	8.6%	2.5%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	88.2%	9.1%	1.5%	0.7%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	88.2%	9.2%	1.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share rose from 84.2% in 2009 to 88.2% in 2024, up 4.0 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Rusk County: its share of workers rose from 8.1% in 2009 to 9.2% in 2024, up 1.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 1.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 4.4% to 1.7% of workers (down 2.7 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Rusk County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Rusk County?

The bars show when commuters in Rusk 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 Rusk County10.3% Wisconsin6.9%	10.3%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Rusk County6.4% Wisconsin4.7%	6.4%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Rusk County6.9% Wisconsin6.1%	6.9%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Rusk County10.5% Wisconsin8.5%	10.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Rusk County11.7% Wisconsin10.4%	11.7%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Rusk County12.2% Wisconsin14.7%	12.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Rusk County9.9% Wisconsin12.7%	9.9%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Rusk County8.7% Wisconsin9.0%	8.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Rusk County3.3% Wisconsin4.0%	3.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Rusk County2.3% Wisconsin4.7%	2.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Rusk County1.8% Wisconsin2.4%	1.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Rusk County0.9% Wisconsin1.3%	0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Rusk County7.8% Wisconsin8.1%	7.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Rusk County7.2% Wisconsin6.4%	7.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Rusk County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 12.2% 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: 42.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.8% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.1%) 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 Rusk 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 Rusk 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 Rusk 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.

• Rusk County
• Wisconsin
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Rusk County	Wisconsin	United States
2009	7:12 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:11 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:10 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:14 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	7:16 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:16 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:14 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:11 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:12 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:04 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:06 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:05 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:05 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:10 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Rusk County were on the road by 7:10 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:12 AM). Wisconsin followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Rusk County now leave 27 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Rusk County's commute time compare?

Metric	Rusk County	Wisconsin	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	19.0 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	9.2%	13.1%	15.0%
Walked	1.7%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Rusk County is about the same as in Wisconsin.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Wisconsin. 1.7% commute by walking, lower than the 2.6% in Wisconsin.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau