Commuting in Nicholas County, West Virginia: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:33 PM
What does a typical morning commute look like in Nicholas County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:33 PM
Commute Time Burden in Nicholas County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Nicholas County spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 180 hours, about 7.5 full days, spent commuting. That is about the same time on the road as the West Virginia average of 21.6 minutes each way.
Nicholas County holds about 1.4% of West Virginia's population and accounts for roughly 1.4% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Nicholas County would save about 72 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,236 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)
Nicholas County
21.6 min
43.3 min
180 hrs/yr
$5,589
728
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.
On average, it takes
21.6
minutes to get to work in
Nicholas County.
That's 3% 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 4.8% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Nicholas County
Car:
92.6%
Worked at Home:
4.8%
Public Transportation:
1.0%
Walked:
0.8%
Other:
0.7%
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Bicycle:
< 0.1%unusually low
Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Nicholas County, versus 0.0% in West Virginia.
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Nicholas County, versus 0.1% in West Virginia.
Biking is essentially absent in Nicholas County, versus 0.2% in West Virginia.
Few people walk or bike to work in Nicholas County: just 0.8%, 3.2 times below the West Virginia average of 2.6%.
Commute Mode Trends in Nicholas County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Nicholas 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.
Share of workers aged 16 and over, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show commute mode data by year
Year
Car
Worked at Home
Public Transportation
Walked
Other
Taxi
Motorcycle
Bicycle
2009
95.8%
1.7%
0.6%
1.1%
0.8%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2010
96.1%
1.8%
0.2%
1.3%
0.6%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2011
96.1%
1.7%
0.3%
1.3%
0.7%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2012
95.5%
1.7%
0.3%
2.0%
0.6%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2013
94.6%
2.0%
0.2%
2.1%
1.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2014
94.7%
1.5%
0.0%
2.1%
1.5%
0.0%
0.2%
0.0%
2015
95.0%
2.0%
0.4%
0.7%
1.6%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2016
94.8%
2.2%
0.4%
0.8%
1.5%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2017
94.8%
2.0%
0.4%
0.8%
1.8%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2018
95.1%
2.1%
0.5%
0.9%
1.1%
0.0%
0.2%
0.0%
2019
93.9%
2.8%
0.9%
1.2%
1.2%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2020
93.8%
3.0%
1.0%
1.5%
0.7%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2021
92.9%
2.8%
1.6%
1.0%
1.6%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2022
93.4%
3.1%
1.6%
1.0%
0.9%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2023
92.8%
3.8%
1.3%
1.0%
1.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2024
92.6%
4.8%
1.0%
0.8%
0.7%
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 peaked in 2010 at 96.1%. Overall it fell from 95.8% in 2009 to 92.6% in 2024, down 3.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Nicholas County: its share of workers rose from 1.7% in 2009 to 4.8% in 2024, up 3.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking peaked at 2.1% in 2013 and has since fallen back to 0.8%.
Commute Start Times in Nicholas County
😴Sleeping InThe 3rd-highest share of 9 AM-or-later starts among West Virginia's 55 counties: 27.8% of commuters leave at 9 AM or later.
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Nicholas County?
The bars show when commuters in Nicholas 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.
Nicholas CountyWest VirginiaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Nicholas County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.4% across West Virginia. Early starts are more common than in West Virginia: 18.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 16.3% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in West Virginia: 41.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.4% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (27.8%) 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 Nicholas 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 Nicholas 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 Nicholas 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.
Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show typical departure times by year
Year
Nicholas County
West Virginia
United States
2009
7:22 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:31 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:30 AM
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:29 AM
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:28 AM
7:33 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:28 AM
7:32 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:23 AM
7:32 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:20 AM
7:32 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:20 AM
7:32 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:22 AM
7:31 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:20 AM
7:31 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:23 AM
7:29 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:30 AM
7:28 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:29 AM
7:29 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:30 AM
7:28 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:29 AM
7:27 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Nicholas County were on the road by 7:29 AM, 6 minutes later than in 2009 (7:22 AM). That goes against the trend across West Virginia, where the typical commuter now leaves 8 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Nicholas County now leave 9 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 Nicholas County has moved 9 minutes later.
How does Nicholas County's commute time compare?
Metric
Nicholas County
West Virginia
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
21.6 min
21.6 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
4.8%
9.1%
15.0%
Walked
0.8%
2.5%
2.4%
Public Transit
1.0%
0.5%
3.2%
The average commute time in Nicholas County is about the same as in West Virginia.
1.0% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.5% in West Virginia. 0.8% commute by walking, lower than the 2.5% in West Virginia.
Nicholas County, WV Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Nicholas County, WV is the 3rd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 24,277 residents against a local median of 12,208. Where Nicholas County, WV breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 27% below the local median of 6.6% at 4.8%.
One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 21.6 min against a local median of 25.5 min, 15% below it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 15% below the local median it puts Nicholas County, WV at the better end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 6.5% on work from home, so Nicholas County, WV sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Nicholas County, WV has the 5th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Nicholas County, West Virginia.
How much does the average commute cost workers in Nicholas County, West Virginia?
Commuters here spend an estimated 180 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,589 at a typical national wage.
When is rush hour worst in Nicholas County, West Virginia?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Nicholas County, West Virginia. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
Which counties in West Virginia have the fastest and slowest commutes?
Among counties in West Virginia, the shortest average commutes are in Randolph County (16.4 min), Ohio County (17.0 min), Pocahontas County (17.2 min). The longest are in Hampshire County (40.3 min), Morgan County (35.8 min), Monroe County (33.7 min).