Mason County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Mason County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Mason County spend about 52 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 218 hours, about 9.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% more time on the road than the West Virginia average of 21.6 minutes each way, a difference of 4.6 minutes.

Mason County holds about 1.4% of West Virginia's population but accounts for roughly 1.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Mason County would save about 87 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,708 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)
Mason County	26.2 min	52.4 min	218 hrs/yr	$6,769	1,178
West Virginia	21.6 min	43.2 min	180 hrs/yr	$5,581	1,052
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: West Virginia Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 26.2 minutes to get to work in Mason County. That's 17% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 4.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Mason County

• Car: 93.2%
• Worked at Home: 4.5%
• Walked: 1.2%
• Other: 1.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Mason County, versus 0.0% in West Virginia.

Public transit is unusually rare in Mason County: 11.7 times less than the West Virginia average (0.0% vs 0.5%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Mason County, versus 0.1% in West Virginia.

Biking is essentially absent in Mason County, versus 0.2% in West Virginia.

Commute Mode Trends in Mason County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	95.8%	1.1%	2.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	96.1%	1.3%	1.8%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	95.1%	1.8%	2.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2012	94.5%	2.1%	2.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	94.5%	2.1%	2.4%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	94.6%	1.9%	2.6%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	94.8%	1.7%	2.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	96.7%	1.2%	1.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	96.3%	1.7%	1.4%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	95.3%	2.3%	1.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	95.3%	3.0%	1.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	96.0%	2.3%	1.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	96.2%	2.4%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	96.0%	2.6%	0.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	92.7%	5.1%	1.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	93.2%	4.5%	1.2%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	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 96.7% and lowest in 2023 at 92.7%. Overall it fell from 95.8% in 2009 to 93.2% in 2024, down 2.6 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Mason County: its share of workers rose from 1.1% in 2009 to 4.5% in 2024, up 3.4 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.6% to 1.2% of workers (down 1.4 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2017 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Mason County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Mason County?

The bars show when commuters in Mason 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 West Virginia for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Mason County10.0% West Virginia6.3%	10.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Mason County3.6% West Virginia4.4%	3.6%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Mason County3.8% West Virginia5.6%	3.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Mason County16.7% West Virginia10.2%	16.7%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Mason County10.3% West Virginia10.4%	10.3%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Mason County16.2% West Virginia14.4%	16.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Mason County8.2% West Virginia11.9%	8.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Mason County7.4% West Virginia9.7%	7.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Mason County4.1% West Virginia4.5%	4.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Mason County6.2% West Virginia4.7%	6.2%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Mason County2.1% West Virginia2.7%	2.1%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Mason County0.9% West Virginia1.2%	0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Mason County4.9% West Virginia7.0%	4.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Mason County5.5% West Virginia7.1%	5.5%

Mason County West Virginia Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Mason County is 6:00-6:29 AM, when 16.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 10.2% across West Virginia. Early starts are more common than in West Virginia: 17.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 16.3% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in West Virginia: 42.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.4% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.7%) 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 Mason 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 Mason 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 Mason County next to West Virginia 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.

• Mason County
• West Virginia
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Mason County	West Virginia	United States
2009	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:15 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:12 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:12 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:13 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:06 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:11 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:09 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:05 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:07 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:07 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:10 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:07 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:08 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:05 AM	7:28 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:10 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Mason County were on the road by 7:10 AM, 11 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:22 AM). The shift is sharper than across West Virginia, where the typical start moved 8 minutes earlier. Commuters in Mason County now leave 28 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Mason County has moved 3 minutes later.

How does Mason County's commute time compare?

Metric	Mason County	West Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	26.2 min	21.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	06:00 AM – 06:29 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	4.5%	9.1%	15.0%
Walked	1.2%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Mason County is 26.2 minutes, longer than the 21.6 minutes in West Virginia.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in West Virginia. 1.2% commute by walking, lower than the 2.5% in West Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau