Alpine County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 8:12 PM

Is the commute in Alpine County longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:12 PM

Commute Time Burden in Alpine County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Alpine County spend about 63 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 261 hours, about 10.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 33% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 7.9 minutes.

Alpine County holds about 0.0% of California's population and accounts for roughly 0.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Alpine County would save about 104 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,238 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)
Alpine County	31.3 min	62.7 min	261 hrs/yr	$8,094	416
California	23.5 min	47.0 min	196 hrs/yr	$6,065	2,449
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: California Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in California

Inyo County (11.1 min)
Mono County (12.0 min)
Del Norte County (12.1 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in California

Alpine County (31.3 min)
San Benito County (31.2 min)
Contra Costa County (31.0 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Alpine County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 31.3 minutes to get to work in Alpine County. That's 40% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slowest county in California

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 18.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Alpine County

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Alpine County, versus 0.2% in California.

Public transit is unusually rare in Alpine County: 11.4 times less than the California average (0.3% vs 2.9%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Alpine County, versus 0.2% in California.

Biking is unusually common in Alpine County: 4.1 times more than the California average (2.9% vs 0.7%).

Commute Mode Trends in Alpine County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Alpine 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	Bicycle	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Other
2009	78.3%	11.5%	0.0%	9.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%
2010	68.8%	20.3%	0.0%	10.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%
2011	72.2%	18.9%	0.0%	8.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
2012	75.3%	17.6%	0.0%	7.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	68.3%	24.2%	0.0%	7.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	72.7%	19.6%	0.0%	5.8%	0.0%	0.0%	1.7%	0.2%
2015	76.2%	13.7%	0.0%	8.4%	0.0%	0.0%	1.5%	0.3%
2016	73.3%	16.5%	0.0%	7.7%	0.0%	0.0%	2.2%	0.2%
2017	75.3%	14.0%	0.0%	9.1%	0.0%	0.0%	1.4%	0.3%
2018	77.5%	13.8%	0.0%	7.0%	0.3%	0.0%	1.1%	0.3%
2019	72.4%	21.5%	0.0%	5.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	62.1%	34.2%	0.0%	2.8%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	66.1%	27.2%	2.5%	3.1%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	70.8%	24.1%	2.4%	2.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	69.7%	25.5%	2.2%	2.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	76.1%	18.3%	2.9%	2.5%	0.3%	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 bottomed out in 2020 at 62.1%. Overall it fell from 78.3% in 2009 to 76.1% in 2024, down 2.2 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Alpine County: its share of workers rose from 11.5% in 2009 to 18.3% in 2024, up 6.8 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 9.4% to 2.5% of workers (down 6.9 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 34.2% in 2020 and has since fallen back to 18.3%.

Commute Start Times in Alpine County

Sleeping InThe highest share of 9 AM-or-later starts among California's 58 counties: 34.3% of commuters leave at 9 AM or later.
Hitting SnoozeThe biggest shift to later mornings among California's 58 counties: the typical start is 26 minutes later than in 2009.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Alpine County?

The bars show when commuters in Alpine 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 California for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		2.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		0.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		1.8%
6:00-6:29 AM		4.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		23.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		9.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.5%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		13.9%
10:00-10:59 AM		0.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		19.7%
4:00-11:59 PM		0.0%

Alpine County California Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Alpine County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 23.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 4.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in California: 53.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (34.3%) 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 Alpine 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 Alpine 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 Alpine County next to California 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	Alpine County	California	United States
2009	7:31 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:39 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:39 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:32 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:27 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:28 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:26 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:27 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:31 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:33 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:39 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:27 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:35 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:25 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:38 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:57 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Alpine County were on the road by 7:57 AM, 26 minutes later than in 2009 (7:31 AM). The shift is sharper than across California, where the typical start moved 6 minutes later. Commuters in Alpine County now leave 19 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Alpine County has moved 17 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Alpine County in the whole series.

How does Alpine County's commute time compare?

Metric	Alpine County	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	31.3 min	23.5 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	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	18.2%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.5%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Alpine County is 31.3 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 2.5% commute by walking, higher than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Alpine County, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Alpine County, CA is the smallest of the 6 counties compared here, 1,616 residents against a local median of 58,384. The measure that sets Alpine County, CA apart most is work from home: 18.3%, 56% above the local median of 11.7%.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 31.3 min against a local median of 20.9 min, 50% above it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 50% above the local median it puts Alpine County, CA at the weaker end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 13.8% on work from home, so Alpine County, CA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Alpine County, CA has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Alpine County, CA	1,616	31.3 min #6/6	18.3% #2/6	7:57 AM #6/6
Douglas County, NV	49,623	20.9 min	12.7%	7:32 AM
Carson City, NV	58,384	16.8 min	9.8%	7:36 AM
Tuolumne County, CA	54,498	18.5 min	11.7%	7:32 AM
El Dorado County, CA	192,661	21.5 min	22.1%	7:44 AM
Lyon County, NV	61,677	25.8 min	8.2%	7:07 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Alpine County, California.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Alpine County, California?

Commuters here spend an estimated 261 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $8,094 at a typical national wage. That's 33% more than the typical California commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Alpine County, California?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Alpine County, California. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM also sees a secondary bump.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Alpine County, California?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.3% of commuters use it versus 2.9% in California, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

How do commute times compare across counties in California?

Among counties in California, the shortest average commutes are in Inyo County (11.1 min), Mono County (12.0 min), Del Norte County (12.1 min). The longest are in Alpine County (31.3 min), San Benito County (31.2 min), Contra Costa County (31.0 min).