Atwater Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Atwater: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Atwater spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 180 hours, about 7.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% less time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 1.9 minutes.

Atwater 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 Atwater would save about 72 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,234 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)
Atwater	21.6 min	43.2 min	180 hrs/yr	$5,584	1,830
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.

Atwater Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.6 minutes to get to work in Atwater. That's 4% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 4.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Atwater

• Car: 91.7% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 4.6% unusually low
• Other: 2.2%
• Walked: 0.8%
• Public Transportation: 0.6% unusually low
• Bicycle: 0.2% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Atwater: 9.9 times less than the California average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Driving is 22% more common in Atwater than the California average (91.7% vs 75.2%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Atwater: 4.5 times less than the California average (0.6% vs 2.9%).

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

Working from home is unusually rare in Atwater: 3.8 times less than the California average (4.6% vs 17.2%).

Biking is unusually rare in Atwater: 4.0 times less than the California average (0.2% vs 0.7%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Atwater: just 1.0%, 3.1 times below the California average of 3.1%.

Commute Mode Trends in Atwater, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Atwater 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
• Other
• Walked
• Public Transportation
• Bicycle
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	90.0%	4.6%	2.8%	1.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.7%
2010	89.7%	5.1%	2.4%	1.1%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	1.0%
2011	89.7%	4.3%	3.1%	1.6%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.6%
2012	90.5%	4.3%	2.7%	1.3%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.7%
2013	92.0%	4.2%	1.7%	1.3%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2014	92.4%	3.7%	2.1%	1.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2015	91.8%	3.6%	2.4%	1.0%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	91.0%	3.6%	3.4%	0.7%	1.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	90.1%	3.8%	3.6%	0.8%	1.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	90.5%	3.4%	4.0%	0.6%	1.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	90.6%	3.4%	4.0%	0.7%	0.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	91.3%	3.3%	3.5%	1.0%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	90.4%	3.8%	3.9%	1.2%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	90.6%	4.3%	3.2%	1.2%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	90.3%	5.0%	3.1%	1.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.7%	4.6%	2.2%	0.8%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2014 at 92.4% and lowest in 2010 at 89.7%. Overall it rose from 90.0% in 2009 to 91.7% in 2024, up 1.7 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Riding a motorcycle lost the most ground, falling from 0.7% to 0.0% of workers (down 0.7 percentage points).

Public transit overtook riding a motorcycle to become the 5th most common choice in the 2013 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Atwater

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Atwater?

The bars show when commuters in Atwater 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	12:00-4:59 AM Atwater12.1% California6.7%	12.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Atwater8.5% California4.5%	8.5%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Atwater6.2% California4.5%	6.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Atwater10.7% California8.4%	10.7%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Atwater8.9% California7.5%	8.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Atwater15.1% California13.1%	15.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Atwater9.5% California10.2%	9.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Atwater5.6% California12.6%	5.6%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Atwater3.7% California5.8%	3.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Atwater3.9% California8.6%	3.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Atwater1.6% California3.9%	1.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Atwater1.1% California1.8%	1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Atwater5.9% California6.9%	5.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Atwater7.0% California5.5%	7.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Atwater is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across California. Early starts are more common than in California: 26.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in California: 39.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.5%) 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 Atwater, 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 Atwater 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 Atwater 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.

• Atwater
• California
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Atwater	California	United States
2009	7:28 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:38 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:35 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:31 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:31 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:27 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:18 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:21 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:21 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:25 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:24 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:20 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:14 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:14 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:10 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:07 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Atwater were on the road by 7:07 AM, 21 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:28 AM). That goes against the trend across California, where the typical commuter now leaves 6 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Atwater now leave 31 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 Atwater has moved 16 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Atwater in the whole series.

How does Atwater's commute time compare?

Metric	Atwater	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.6 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 AM – 04:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	4.6%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	0.8%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.6%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Atwater is 21.6 minutes, shorter than the 23.5 minutes in California.

0.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 0.8% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau