Bell Gardens Commute Time Map & Patterns
HelpCommuting in Bell Gardens, California: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
Commute Time Burden in Bell Gardens: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Bell Gardens spend about 53 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 222 hours, about 9.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 13% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 3.1 minutes.
Bell Gardens 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 Bell Gardens would save about 89 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,751 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bell Gardens | 26.6 min | 53.3 min | 222 hrs/yr | $6,878 | 5,243 |
| 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.
Bell Gardens Commute Map
On average, it takes 26.6 minutes to get to work in Bell Gardens. That's 19% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 5.6% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Bell Gardens
- Car: 84.7%
- Worked at Home: 5.6% unusually low
- Walked: 3.9%
- Public Transportation: 3.5%
- Other: 1.1%
- Bicycle: 0.9%
- Taxi: 0.3%
- Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Bell Gardens, versus 0.2% in California.
Working from home is unusually rare in Bell Gardens: 3.1 times less than the California average (5.6% vs 17.2%).
Commute Mode Trends in Bell Gardens, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Bell Gardens 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.
Show commute mode data by year
| Year | Car | Worked at Home | Walked | Public Transportation | Other | Bicycle | Taxi | Motorcycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 84.5% | 2.6% | 3.1% | 7.9% | 0.9% | 1.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2010 | 83.5% | 2.5% | 3.6% | 8.8% | 0.9% | 0.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2011 | 84.4% | 3.0% | 3.3% | 7.5% | 0.9% | 0.8% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2012 | 83.5% | 2.8% | 3.4% | 8.2% | 1.1% | 1.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2013 | 83.8% | 2.8% | 3.1% | 8.1% | 0.9% | 1.1% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2014 | 84.1% | 3.2% | 4.3% | 6.5% | 1.1% | 0.7% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2015 | 84.9% | 3.2% | 4.6% | 5.4% | 1.1% | 0.8% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2016 | 83.8% | 3.1% | 4.6% | 6.4% | 1.3% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2017 | 85.5% | 2.6% | 4.0% | 6.0% | 1.2% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2018 | 86.8% | 2.2% | 3.3% | 5.8% | 1.3% | 0.5% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2019 | 88.5% | 2.3% | 2.3% | 5.2% | 1.1% | 0.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2020 | 89.7% | 2.2% | 1.7% | 5.0% | 0.7% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2021 | 89.4% | 3.3% | 2.5% | 3.6% | 0.3% | 0.8% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2022 | 87.3% | 5.0% | 2.9% | 3.5% | 0.5% | 0.7% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2023 | 85.3% | 6.2% | 3.8% | 3.1% | 0.6% | 1.0% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2024 | 84.7% | 5.6% | 3.9% | 3.5% | 1.1% | 0.9% | 0.3% | 0.0% |
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2020 at 89.7% and lowest in 2010 at 83.5%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 84.5% in 2009 and 84.7% in 2024. It has fallen in each of the last 4 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Bell Gardens: its share of workers rose from 2.6% in 2009 to 5.6% in 2024, up 3.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 7.9% to 3.5% of workers (down 4.4 percentage points).
Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.
Commute Start Times in Bell Gardens
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Bell Gardens?
The bars show when commuters in Bell Gardens 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
Bell Gardens12.1%
California6.7%
|
12.1% |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00-5:29 AM |
5:00-5:29 AM
Bell Gardens8.6%
California4.5%
|
8.6% |
| 5:30-5:59 AM |
5:30-5:59 AM
Bell Gardens5.8%
California4.5%
|
5.8% |
| 6:00-6:29 AM |
6:00-6:29 AM
Bell Gardens9.2%
California8.4%
|
9.2% |
| 6:30-6:59 AM |
6:30-6:59 AM
Bell Gardens11.2%
California7.5%
|
11.2% |
| 7:00-7:29 AM |
7:00-7:29 AM
Bell Gardens9.4%
California13.1%
|
9.4% |
| 7:30-7:59 AM |
7:30-7:59 AM
Bell Gardens10.9%
California10.2%
|
10.9% |
| 8:00-8:29 AM |
8:00-8:29 AM
Bell Gardens8.0%
California12.6%
|
8.0% |
| 8:30-8:59 AM |
8:30-8:59 AM
Bell Gardens2.9%
California5.8%
|
2.9% |
| 9:00-9:59 AM |
9:00-9:59 AM
Bell Gardens3.2%
California8.6%
|
3.2% |
| 10:00-10:59 AM |
10:00-10:59 AM
Bell Gardens2.6%
California3.9%
|
2.6% |
| 11:00-11:59 AM |
11:00-11:59 AM
Bell Gardens1.2%
California1.8%
|
1.2% |
| 12:00-3:59 PM |
12:00-3:59 PM
Bell Gardens9.6%
California6.9%
|
9.6% |
| 4:00-11:59 PM |
4:00-11:59 PM
Bell Gardens5.1%
California5.5%
|
5.1% |
Bell Gardens California Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Bell Gardens is 12:00-4:59 AM, when 12.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 6.7% across California. Early starts are more common than in California: 26.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in California: 39.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.7%) 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 Bell Gardens, 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 Bell Gardens 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 Bell Gardens 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.
Show typical departure times by year
| Year | Bell Gardens | California | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 7:13 AM | 7:39 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2010 | 7:09 AM | 7:41 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2011 | 7:15 AM | 7:41 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2012 | 7:18 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2013 | 7:19 AM | 7:43 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2014 | 7:15 AM | 7:43 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2015 | 7:15 AM | 7:43 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2016 | 7:13 AM | 7:43 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2017 | 7:14 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2018 | 7:13 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2019 | 7:12 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2020 | 7:13 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2021 | 7:08 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2022 | 7:07 AM | 7:43 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2023 | 7:08 AM | 7:44 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2024 | 7:10 AM | 7:45 AM | 7:38 AM |
In 2024, half of commuters in Bell Gardens were on the road by 7:10 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:13 AM). That goes against the trend across California, where the typical commuter now leaves 6 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Bell Gardens now leave 28 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 Bell Gardens has moved 3 minutes earlier.
How does Bell Gardens's commute time compare?
| Metric | Bell Gardens | California | US Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. Commute Time | 26.6 min | 23.5 min | 22.4 min |
| Departure Window | 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM | 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM | 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM |
| Secondary Departure Window | 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM | 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM |
| Work From Home | 5.6% | 17.2% | 15.0% |
| Walked | 3.9% | 2.4% | 2.4% |
| Public Transit | 3.5% | 2.9% | 3.2% |
The average commute time in Bell Gardens is 26.6 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.
3.5% commute by public transit, higher than the 2.9% in California. 3.9% commute by walking, higher than the 2.4% in California.
Bell Gardens, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities
Bell Gardens, CA is the 2nd largest of the 5 cities compared here, 38,229 residents against a local median of 28,020. Where Bell Gardens, CA breaks from the cities next to it is work from home, sitting 27% above the local median of 4.4% at 5.6%.
The cities themselves spread 4.8% on work from home, so Bell Gardens, CA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Bell Gardens, CA has the 2nd highest work from home of the 5 areas compared here.
| Area | Population | One-way commute | Work from home | Typical departure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bell Gardens, CA | 38,229 | 26.6 min #1/5 | 5.6% #2/5 | 7:10 AM #4/5 |
| Cudahy, CA | 21,960 | 30.1 min | 4.4% | 7:09 AM |
| Bell, CA | 33,319 | 30.5 min | 4.3% | 7:04 AM |
| Downey, CA | 112,177 | 27.9 min | 9.1% | 7:30 AM |
| Maywood, CA | 22,721 | 30.3 min | 4.4% | 7:08 AM |
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about commuting in Bell Gardens, California.
Is commuting expensive in Bell Gardens, California?
Commuters here spend an estimated 222 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,878 at a typical national wage. That's 13% more than the typical California commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Bell Gardens, California?
Traffic peaks between 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM in Bell Gardens, California. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.