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Santa Cruz County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Santa Cruz County, Arizona: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 8:30 PM
Is the commute in Santa Cruz County longer than the national average?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:30 PM

Commute Time Burden in Santa Cruz County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Santa Cruz County spend about 36 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 150 hours, about 6.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% less time on the road than the Arizona average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 4.5 minutes.

Santa Cruz County holds about 0.7% of Arizona's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Santa Cruz County would save about 60 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,854 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)
Santa Cruz County 17.9 min 35.9 min 150 hrs/yr $4,636 492
Arizona 22.4 min 44.9 min 187 hrs/yr $5,798 1,948
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: Arizona Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Arizona
  1. La Paz County (10.3 min)
  2. Gila County (13.4 min)
  3. Greenlee County (13.9 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Arizona
  1. Pinal County (31.0 min)
  2. Maricopa County (23.1 min)
  3. Pima County (22.2 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Santa Cruz County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 17.9 minutes to get to work in Santa Cruz County. That's 20% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 8.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Santa Cruz County

  • Car: 87.7%
  • Worked at Home: 8.7%
  • Walked: 1.2%
  • Motorcycle: 0.7%
  • Taxi: 0.5%
  • Bicycle: 0.5%
  • Other: 0.4%
  • Public Transportation: 0.3% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Santa Cruz County: 3.4 times less than the Arizona average (0.3% vs 1.0%).

Commute Mode Trends in Santa Cruz County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Santa Cruz 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 Walked Motorcycle Taxi Bicycle Other Public Transportation
2009 91.7% 4.2% 3.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.7% 0.1%
2010 91.6% 4.2% 2.4% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 1.1% 0.2%
2011 91.5% 4.3% 2.4% 0.3% 0.0% 0.1% 1.1% 0.2%
2012 90.3% 5.6% 2.5% 0.2% 0.0% 0.1% 1.1% 0.2%
2013 89.9% 6.1% 2.3% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% 1.0% 0.3%
2014 90.5% 5.4% 2.2% 0.3% 0.1% 0.2% 1.2% 0.2%
2015 90.6% 5.3% 2.1% 0.3% 0.1% 0.2% 1.3% 0.2%
2016 90.7% 5.6% 1.6% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% 1.3% 0.3%
2017 91.7% 4.7% 1.6% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% 1.3% 0.3%
2018 92.3% 3.9% 1.4% 0.1% 0.0% 0.1% 1.8% 0.3%
2019 92.8% 3.5% 1.0% 0.1% 0.3% 0.1% 1.4% 0.8%
2020 90.4% 4.4% 1.2% 0.5% 0.7% 0.5% 1.4% 1.1%
2021 89.4% 5.6% 1.3% 0.6% 0.7% 0.5% 0.9% 1.0%
2022 89.6% 5.8% 1.1% 0.4% 0.8% 0.6% 0.7% 1.1%
2023 89.5% 6.3% 1.3% 0.6% 0.7% 0.5% 0.4% 0.7%
2024 87.7% 8.7% 1.2% 0.7% 0.5% 0.5% 0.4% 0.3%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2019 at 92.8%. Overall it fell from 91.7% in 2009 to 87.7% in 2024, down 4.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Santa Cruz County: its share of workers rose from 4.2% in 2009 to 8.7% in 2024, up 4.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.1% to 1.2% of workers (down 1.9 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Santa Cruz County

  • Night OwlThe 2nd-latest start among Arizona's 15 counties: half of commuters are still at home at 7:38 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Santa Cruz County?

The bars show when commuters in Santa Cruz 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 Arizona for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM
6.4%
5:00-5:29 AM
4.4%
5:30-5:59 AM
6.5%
6:00-6:29 AM
5.5%
6:30-6:59 AM
10.2%
7:00-7:29 AM
13.0%
7:30-7:59 AM
14.8%
8:00-8:29 AM
9.7%
8:30-8:59 AM
3.7%
9:00-9:59 AM
7.4%
10:00-10:59 AM
5.6%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM
6.7%
4:00-11:59 PM
4.5%

Santa Cruz County Arizona Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Santa Cruz County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 14.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 10.1% across Arizona. Early starts are less common than in Arizona: 17.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 20.1% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Arizona: 47.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 42.6% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.9%) 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 Santa Cruz 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 Santa Cruz 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 Santa Cruz County next to Arizona 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 Santa Cruz County Arizona United States
2009 7:39 AM 7:23 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:39 AM 7:25 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:40 AM 7:26 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:43 AM 7:27 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:42 AM 7:27 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:41 AM 7:27 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:40 AM 7:26 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:41 AM 7:26 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:39 AM 7:26 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:35 AM 7:26 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:35 AM 7:26 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:39 AM 7:26 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:31 AM 7:25 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:32 AM 7:26 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:36 AM 7:26 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:38 AM 7:26 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Santa Cruz County were on the road by 7:38 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Arizona, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Santa Cruz County now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Santa Cruz County has moved 3 minutes later.

How does Santa Cruz County's commute time compare?

Metric Santa Cruz County Arizona US Average
Avg. Commute Time 17.9 min 22.4 min 22.4 min
Departure Window 07:30 AM – 07:59 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 8.7% 18.4% 15.0%
Walked 1.2% 1.7% 2.4%
Public Transit 0.3% 1.0% 3.2%

The average commute time in Santa Cruz County is 17.9 minutes, shorter than the 22.4 minutes in Arizona.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.0% in Arizona. 1.2% commute by walking, lower than the 1.7% in Arizona.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Santa Cruz County, AZ Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Santa Cruz County, AZ is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 48,922 residents against a local median of 125,520. Santa Cruz County, AZ's work from home, at 8.7%, runs 29% below the 12.2% typical of the counties around it.

The counties themselves spread 13.3% on work from home, so Santa Cruz County, AZ sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Santa Cruz County, AZ has the 4th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Santa Cruz County, AZ 48,922 17.9 min #4/6 8.7% #4/6 7:38 AM #6/6
Pima County, AZ 1,060,282 22.2 min 15.4% 7:33 AM
Cochise County, AZ 125,520 16.7 min 12.2% 7:26 AM
Pinal County, AZ 468,983 31.0 min 16.9% 7:03 AM
Graham County, AZ 39,230 16.3 min 4.0% 7:07 AM
Hidalgo County, NM 4,041 12.1 min 3.6% 7:34 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Santa Cruz County, Arizona.

Is commuting expensive in Santa Cruz County, Arizona?

Commuters here spend an estimated 150 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,636 at a typical national wage. That's 20% less than the typical Arizona commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Santa Cruz County, Arizona?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Santa Cruz County, Arizona?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.3% of commuters use it versus 1.0% in Arizona, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

How do commute times compare across counties in Arizona?

Among counties in Arizona, the shortest average commutes are in La Paz County (10.3 min), Gila County (13.4 min), Greenlee County (13.9 min). The longest are in Pinal County (31.0 min), Maricopa County (23.1 min), Pima County (22.2 min).