Altadena Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Altadena, 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, 3:43 PM

Is the commute in Altadena longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:43 PM

Commute Time Burden in Altadena: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Altadena spend about 47 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 195 hours, about 8.1 full days, spent commuting. That is about the same time on the road as the California average of 23.5 minutes each way.

Altadena holds about 0.1% of California's population and accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Altadena would save about 78 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,424 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)
Altadena	23.5 min	46.9 min	195 hrs/yr	$6,059	1,980
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.

Altadena Commute Map

On average, it takes 23.5 minutes to get to work in Altadena. That's 5% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 26.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Altadena

Walking is unusually rare in Altadena: 3.3 times less than the California average (0.7% vs 2.4%).

Commute Mode Trends in Altadena, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Altadena 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	Other	Public Transportation	Walked	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	87.4%	5.4%	0.6%	4.5%	1.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.5%
2010	86.7%	5.8%	0.6%	4.6%	0.9%	0.8%	0.0%	0.5%
2011	86.1%	5.2%	0.4%	4.8%	1.3%	1.4%	0.0%	0.7%
2012	86.1%	5.6%	0.4%	4.3%	1.6%	1.3%	0.0%	0.8%
2013	86.5%	5.0%	0.7%	4.0%	1.5%	1.6%	0.0%	0.7%
2014	85.9%	5.7%	1.0%	3.4%	1.8%	1.5%	0.0%	0.6%
2015	85.8%	5.5%	1.3%	3.7%	1.7%	1.4%	0.0%	0.6%
2016	86.1%	5.8%	1.5%	3.6%	1.4%	1.0%	0.1%	0.5%
2017	85.9%	5.8%	1.6%	3.5%	1.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2018	84.5%	6.4%	1.7%	4.0%	1.9%	0.9%	0.0%	0.5%
2019	83.7%	7.5%	1.3%	4.3%	2.2%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%
2020	81.5%	10.3%	0.9%	4.2%	2.1%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%
2021	76.1%	16.3%	1.2%	3.6%	1.7%	0.8%	0.0%	0.3%
2022	72.6%	21.3%	1.4%	2.4%	1.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.3%
2023	71.4%	24.2%	1.1%	1.5%	1.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%
2024	68.4%	26.1%	2.1%	1.6%	0.7%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 87.4% in 2009 to 68.4% in 2024, down 19.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 8 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Altadena: its share of workers rose from 5.4% in 2009 to 26.1% in 2024, up 20.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 18.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.5% to 1.6% of workers (down 2.9 percentage points).

Walking peaked at 2.2% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 0.7%.

Commute Start Times in Altadena

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Altadena?

The bars show when commuters in Altadena 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		4.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.7%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.5%
6:30-6:59 AM		6.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		19.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		11.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.7%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Altadena is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 19.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.6% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 8.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in California: 51.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.3%) 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 Altadena, 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 Altadena 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 Altadena 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	Altadena	California	United States
2009	7:44 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:46 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:49 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:46 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:48 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:56 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:55 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:56 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:58 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:56 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:57 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:06 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:07 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:08 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:08 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:05 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Altadena were on the road by 8:05 AM, 21 minutes later than in 2009 (7:44 AM). The shift is sharper than across California, where the typical start moved 6 minutes later. Commuters in Altadena now leave 27 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 Altadena has moved 8 minutes later.

How does Altadena's commute time compare?

Metric	Altadena	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.5 min	23.5 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	26.1%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	0.7%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.6%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Altadena is about the same as in California.

1.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 0.7% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Altadena, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Altadena, CA compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Altadena, CA	39,664	23.5 min #2/2	26.1% #2/2	8:05 AM #1/2
Pasadena, CA	138,535	22.6 min	27.3%	8:07 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Altadena, California.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Altadena, California?

Commuters here spend an estimated 195 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,059 at a typical national wage.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Altadena, California?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Altadena, California. 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.

Is Altadena, California a good location for remote and hybrid workers?

About 26.1% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Altadena would save about 78 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,424 at the same national wage assumption used above.