Preston County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Preston County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Preston County spend about 57 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 237 hours, about 9.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 31% more time on the road than the West Virginia average of 21.6 minutes each way, a difference of 6.8 minutes.

Preston County holds about 1.9% of West Virginia's population but accounts for roughly 2.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Preston County would save about 95 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,935 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)
Preston County	28.4 min	56.8 min	237 hrs/yr	$7,338	873
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

N

On average, it takes 28.4 minutes to get to work in Preston County. That's 27% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 70% of counties in West Virginia

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 8.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Preston County

• Car: 88.9%
• Worked at Home: 8.6%
• Walked: 1.8%
• Other: 0.5%
• Public Transportation: 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Public transit is unusually rare in Preston County: 5.0 times less than the West Virginia average (0.1% vs 0.5%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Preston County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Preston 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	93.7%	2.6%	2.1%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2010	93.9%	2.2%	2.5%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2011	94.7%	2.2%	1.8%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2012	94.0%	2.4%	2.0%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%
2013	94.0%	3.1%	2.3%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2014	93.5%	3.2%	2.6%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	93.7%	3.9%	1.8%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	93.5%	3.6%	2.3%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	92.4%	4.3%	2.4%	0.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	92.6%	4.6%	2.0%	0.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	92.6%	4.8%	1.7%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	92.0%	5.2%	1.9%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	91.2%	6.6%	1.5%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	91.6%	6.2%	1.5%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	90.8%	7.2%	1.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	88.9%	8.6%	1.8%	0.5%	0.1%	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 peaked in 2011 at 94.7%. Overall it fell from 93.7% in 2009 to 88.9% in 2024, down 4.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Preston County: its share of workers rose from 2.6% in 2009 to 8.6% in 2024, up 6.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Preston County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Preston County?

The bars show when commuters in Preston 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 Preston County8.7% West Virginia6.3%	8.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Preston County5.7% West Virginia4.4%	5.7%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Preston County8.8% West Virginia5.6%	8.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Preston County12.5% West Virginia10.2%	12.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Preston County11.6% West Virginia10.4%	11.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Preston County13.3% West Virginia14.4%	13.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Preston County7.4% West Virginia11.9%	7.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Preston County8.6% West Virginia9.7%	8.6%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Preston County3.2% West Virginia4.5%	3.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Preston County3.4% West Virginia4.7%	3.4%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Preston County1.6% West Virginia2.7%	1.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Preston County0.9% West Virginia1.2%	0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Preston County7.7% West Virginia7.0%	7.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Preston County6.5% West Virginia7.1%	6.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Preston County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.4% across West Virginia. Early starts are more common than in West Virginia: 23.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 16.3% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in West Virginia: 40.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.4% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.2%) 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 Preston 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 Preston 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 Preston 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.

• Preston County
• West Virginia
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Preston County	West Virginia	United States
2009	7:15 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:21 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:19 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:20 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:19 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:14 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:13 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:11 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:09 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:08 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:04 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:03 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:05 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:11 AM	7:28 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:06 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Preston County were on the road by 7:06 AM, 9 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:15 AM). West Virginia followed the same path, with the typical start moving 8 minutes earlier. Commuters in Preston County now leave 32 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 Preston County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Preston County's commute time compare?

Metric	Preston County	West Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	28.4 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	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.6%	9.1%	15.0%
Walked	1.8%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Preston County is 28.4 minutes, longer than the 21.6 minutes in West Virginia.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in West Virginia. 1.8% commute by walking, lower than the 2.5% in West Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau