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Traffic heat map of Wheeler County, Oregon: 30 miles of roads shaded from blue (light) to red (heavy traffic), busiest on Ochoco Highway and John Day Highway

Wheeler County, Oregon Traffic Counts

About 1 in 2 vehicles here is a truck, against 1 in 11 across Oregon. This page breaks down traffic in Wheeler County, Oregon across 30 miles of monitored roads split into 99 segments, using multi-sourced mobile and sensor data. It goes beyond raw counts to truck flow, congestion and who is driving, so site selection and route planning rest on evidence.
Data sourced from TrafficZoom's proprietary analytics platform.
Data current as of:
Q3 2026
Updated:
September 29, 2026
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Total Traffic Volume & Performance in Wheeler County, Oregon

Traffic

The average number of vehicles that travel each day over any road in the road network.

vehicles per day781
Trucks

The percentage of the total traffic volume composed of heavy vehicles.

43.2%
Average travel time

The average time of travel averaged among all vehicles traveling on the road network.

42.5 min
Congestion ratio

The rate at which the actual travel time exceeds free-flow travel time, averaged among all roads in the network.

2.7%
Drivers’ average age

Average age of residents in the geographic areas where the vehicle trips originated.

62.1 yrs
Drivers’ average income

Average income of residents in the geographic areas where the vehicle trips originated.

$51,029

Our data shows 781 vehicles per day on the average road in Wheeler County, Oregon, and 22,049 vehicle-miles traveled per day (≈8.0 million per year) across its 30 miles of monitored roads. Freight weighs heavily here: trucks are 43.2% of traffic, against 9.2% across Oregon.

The quietest roads of any county in Oregon

Wheeler's average daily traffic volume is 87% lower than the state average - 781 vehicles per day against 5,908 - suggesting less traffic load per road - very light roads: easy truck access, but little passing trade for roadside retail. In total volume terms, its road network carries less than 0.1% of Oregon's statewide total of vehicle-miles. Wheeler stands out as having the lowest traffic volume in Oregon - 781 vehicles per day.

At 42.5 minutes, the average travel time is 24% higher than the state level. 94% of counties in Oregon have a shorter average travel time than Wheeler's 42.5 minutes.

Congestion runs 84% lower than the state level, at a ratio of 2.7%, which means smoother traffic flow - free-flowing roads make scheduled deliveries highly predictable.

Time-of-Day & Seasonal Patterns

Data Finding: Hourly & Seasonal Patterns

In Wheeler County, Oregon, the peak hour concentrates about 8% of the day's traffic.

Wheeler County vs. Oregon Traffic Comparison

Of the four measures, truck share differs most: Wheeler County runs 369% above the Oregon average. Its average daily traffic per road, by contrast, is 87% below.

MetricWheeler CountyOregon averageDifference
Traffic7815,908-86.8%
Truck % (Total Traffic)43.2%9.2%+369.2%
Avg. Travel Time42.5 min34.3 min+23.9%

How Wheeler County compares

Wheeler County moves the least traffic of its nearby counties

Against the 4 nearest areas, Wheeler County moves 4.9% of the total daily travel and is 65.5% less congested; it has the quietest roads of the five. Freight passes through here that never reaches the areas around it: the truck share is high precisely because the local car traffic is not.

Wheeler County and the 4 nearest county-level areas by centroid distance, with the Oregon average for scale.
AreaAverage daily trafficTruck shareDaily vehicle-milesAverage travel timeCongestion ratio
Wheeler County78143.2%22,04942.5 min2.7%
Crook County, Oregon3,2237.1%547,67934.8 min10.8%
Grant County, Oregon1,5549.3%114,56735.3 min6.0%
Jefferson County, Oregon2,9799.7%690,27933.5 min10.0%
Gilliam County, Oregon1,43222.5%432,77457.5 min4.8%
Oregon average5,9089.2%N/A34.3 min16.6%

Wheeler County ranked within Oregon

No other county-level area in Oregon records a higher average driver age than Wheeler County.

Wheeler County ranked among 36 county-level areas in Oregon (1 = highest).
MeasureWheeler CountyOregon rank
Traffic volume (AADT)781#36 of 36
Average travel time42.5 min#3 of 36
Average driver income$51,029#36 of 36
Average driver age62.1 yrs#1 of 36

Wheeler County ranks #3 of 36 on average travel time but #36 of 36 on average daily traffic volume. Some of the longest trips in Oregon on some of its emptiest roads - distance, not congestion, is what sets travel time here.

Busiest roads in Wheeler County, Oregon

On their busiest stretches, the three busiest roads in Wheeler County carry 758 vehicles a day on average, about the same as the typical road in the county (781).

Ochoco Highway is the busiest road, at 1,108 vehicles a day, 731 of them trucks (65.9%). No other road comes close: John Day Highway, in second place, carries 630. It also carries the most trucks.

Washington Street carries longer journeys than most roads here, with a median trip of 94.5 minutes against 42.5 county-wide.

Washington Street is busy with cars rather than freight: only 7.1% of its traffic is trucks, against 43.2% county-wide.

Trucks make up 65.9% of traffic on Ochoco Highway, against 43.2% across all roads in the county.

Ranked by daily traffic (AADT)

Cars and light vehiclesTrucks
1Ochoco HighwayPrimary road · 1,108vehicles731trucks · 65.9%
Road class
Primary road
Congestion ratio
2.7%
Median trip time
19.8 min
Drivers’ median age
62.1 yrs
Drivers’ average income
$52,800

Ochoco Highway is a local road at heart: the median trip using it lasts 19.8 minutes, against 42.5 for the county.

2John Day HighwaySecondary road · 630vehicles57trucks · 9.0%
Road class
Secondary road
Median trip time
23.7 min
Drivers’ median age
62.2 yrs
Drivers’ average income
$51,018

Even at its busiest, John Day Highway carries 19% less than the county average; trucks are 9.0% of it, below the county-wide 43.2%.

3Washington StreetSecondary road · 536vehicles38trucks · 7.1%
Road class
Secondary road
Median trip time
94.5 min
Drivers’ median age
62.2 yrs
Drivers’ average income
$49,688

Washington Street is a quieter road: its busiest stretch carries 31% less than the county average; trucks are 7.1% of it, below the county-wide 43.2%.

4Shaniko-Fossil HighwaySecondary road · 263vehicles17trucks · 6.6%
Road class
Secondary road
Median trip time
6.6 min

Trips on Shaniko-Fossil Highway are short, a median 6.6 minutes against 42.5 county-wide, so it mostly serves local errands and commutes.

Ranked by trucks per day

Cars and light vehiclesTrucks
1Ochoco HighwayPrimary road · #1 by traffic1,108vehicles731trucks · 65.9%
2John Day HighwaySecondary road · #2 by traffic630vehicles57trucks · 9.0%
3Washington StreetSecondary road · #3 by traffic536vehicles38trucks · 7.1%
4Shaniko-Fossil HighwaySecondary road · #4 by traffic263vehicles17trucks · 6.6%
How to read these road counts
  • The first number is AADT, annual average daily traffic: the vehicles passing a point on an average day, both directions combined and trucks included. On a divided highway both carriageways are added together.
  • Traffic changes along a road, with more near interchanges and towns and less in open country. Every figure for a road describes its busiest stretch in the county, so the two rankings show the same numbers for the same road.
  • The second number is the trucks on that stretch, a part of its AADT. The bar splits the AADT into cars and light vehicles (blue) and trucks (amber).
  • See segment-level AADT for any road on TrafficZoom.

Data Sources & Methodology

The data presented on this page is derived from TrafficZoom's proprietary analytics platform, which aggregates and normalizes information from multiple sources, including:

Mobile device location data (anonymized and aggregated)

Road sensor networks and traffic counters

Historical traffic pattern databases

Public traffic count programs published by the

WheelerDepartment of Transportation

Demographic Baseline for O-D Modeling

U.S. Census Bureau
All metrics represent estimates based on statistical modeling and are intended for strategic planning purposes.
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Data current as of:
Q3 2026

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Counties near Wheeler County

The same traffic breakdown for the areas closest to Wheeler County, Oregon.

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