Washburn County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Washburn County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Washburn County spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 170 hours, about 7.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 9% more time on the road than the Wisconsin average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 1.6 minutes.

Washburn 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 Washburn County would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,108 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)
Washburn County	20.4 min	40.8 min	170 hrs/yr	$5,269	274
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 20.4 minutes to get to work in Washburn County. That's 9% 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 12.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Washburn County

• Car: 84.4%
• Worked at Home: 12.6%
• Walked: 1.5%
• Other: 0.8%
• Public Transportation: 0.3% unusually low
• Bicycle: 0.3%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Washburn County: 3.6 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.3% vs 1.1%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Washburn County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	86.0%	6.2%	4.4%	0.6%	0.2%	2.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	84.9%	7.2%	4.7%	0.7%	0.2%	1.9%	0.0%	0.4%
2011	85.8%	6.9%	5.7%	0.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2012	86.8%	6.6%	4.8%	0.9%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.4%
2013	87.8%	7.0%	3.5%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2014	88.4%	6.3%	3.4%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.6%
2015	89.5%	5.6%	3.0%	0.9%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.5%
2016	89.2%	5.8%	3.0%	0.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.5%
2017	88.9%	6.6%	2.6%	0.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.4%
2018	88.0%	6.6%	3.6%	0.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%
2019	88.6%	6.8%	3.5%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	87.9%	7.9%	3.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	86.4%	10.0%	2.4%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2022	85.9%	10.5%	2.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	85.3%	11.8%	1.4%	0.8%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	84.4%	12.6%	1.5%	0.8%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2015 at 89.5%. Overall it fell from 86.0% in 2009 to 84.4% in 2024, down 1.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Washburn County: its share of workers rose from 6.2% in 2009 to 12.6% in 2024, up 6.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 4.4% to 1.5% of workers (down 2.9 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Washburn County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Washburn County?

The bars show when commuters in Washburn 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 Washburn County9.0% Wisconsin6.9%	9.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Washburn County3.5% Wisconsin4.7%	3.5%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Washburn County6.1% Wisconsin6.1%	6.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Washburn County8.3% Wisconsin8.5%	8.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Washburn County8.6% Wisconsin10.4%	8.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Washburn County16.9% Wisconsin14.7%	16.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Washburn County13.4% Wisconsin12.7%	13.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Washburn County9.8% Wisconsin9.0%	9.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Washburn County4.0% Wisconsin4.0%	4.0%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Washburn County3.5% Wisconsin4.7%	3.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Washburn County3.4% Wisconsin2.4%	3.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Washburn County1.1% Wisconsin1.3%	1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Washburn County7.3% Wisconsin8.1%	7.3%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Washburn County5.1% Wisconsin6.4%	5.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Washburn County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.7% across Wisconsin. Early starts are about as common as in Wisconsin: 18.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.7% there. The morning rush looks much like Wisconsin's: 48.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.8% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.4%) 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 Washburn 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 Washburn 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 Washburn 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.

• Washburn County
• Wisconsin
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Washburn County	Wisconsin	United States
2009	7:31 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:31 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:30 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:29 AM	7:31 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:28 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:26 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:25 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:29 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:26 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:26 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:21 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:24 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:22 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:25 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:26 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Washburn County were on the road by 7:26 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:31 AM). Wisconsin followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Washburn County now leave 12 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Washburn County's commute time compare?

Metric	Washburn County	Wisconsin	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.4 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	1.5%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Washburn County is 20.4 minutes, longer than the 18.8 minutes in Wisconsin.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Wisconsin. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 2.6% in Wisconsin.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau