Brea Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Brea, 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, 3:40 PM

How much time do drivers in Brea spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:40 PM

Commute Time Burden in Brea: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Brea spend about 57 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 236 hours, about 9.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 4.8 minutes.

Brea 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 Brea would save about 94 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,922 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)
Brea	28.3 min	56.6 min	236 hrs/yr	$7,305	4,023
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.

Brea Commute Map

On average, it takes 28.3 minutes to get to work in Brea. That's 26% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 14.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Brea

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Brea: 5.0 times less than the California average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Brea: 5.3 times less than the California average (0.5% vs 2.9%).

Commute Mode Trends in Brea, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Brea 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	Walked	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	92.2%	3.8%	0.2%	1.9%	0.4%	1.1%	0.1%	0.4%
2010	91.6%	3.9%	0.2%	1.9%	0.5%	1.3%	0.1%	0.4%
2011	91.3%	4.3%	0.2%	1.9%	0.2%	1.6%	0.1%	0.5%
2012	90.9%	4.8%	0.2%	1.6%	0.4%	1.6%	0.1%	0.5%
2013	90.7%	4.9%	0.2%	1.7%	0.5%	1.4%	0.1%	0.5%
2014	90.2%	5.3%	0.1%	1.6%	0.4%	1.7%	0.1%	0.5%
2015	89.5%	5.9%	0.1%	1.6%	0.4%	1.8%	0.0%	0.6%
2016	88.6%	6.7%	0.2%	2.1%	0.5%	1.4%	0.0%	0.5%
2017	88.5%	6.5%	0.2%	2.3%	0.4%	1.5%	0.0%	0.6%
2018	88.5%	6.6%	0.2%	2.4%	0.2%	1.4%	0.0%	0.5%
2019	89.4%	5.9%	0.2%	2.5%	0.3%	1.3%	0.0%	0.4%
2020	88.9%	7.0%	0.2%	2.0%	0.3%	1.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2021	86.6%	9.2%	0.8%	1.7%	0.5%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	85.0%	10.9%	1.3%	1.6%	0.4%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	83.3%	12.5%	1.3%	1.5%	0.4%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	80.9%	14.7%	1.5%	1.2%	1.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 92.2% in 2009 to 80.9% in 2024, down 11.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Brea: its share of workers rose from 3.8% in 2009 to 14.7% in 2024, up 10.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.9% to 1.2% of workers (down 0.7 percentage points).

Biking overtook public transit to become the 5th most common choice in the 2024 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Brea

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Brea?

The bars show when commuters in Brea 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		4.5%
5:00-5:29 AM		6.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.3%
6:30-6:59 AM		6.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		9.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		14.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		9.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Brea is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 13.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in California: 45.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.9%) 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 Brea, 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 Brea 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 Brea 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	Brea	California	United States
2009	7:34 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:32 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:37 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:42 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:38 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:39 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:37 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:36 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:37 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:38 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:35 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:42 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:42 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:42 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:47 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:49 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Brea were on the road by 7:49 AM, 15 minutes later than in 2009 (7:34 AM). The shift is sharper than across California, where the typical start moved 6 minutes later. Commuters in Brea now leave 11 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 Brea has moved 14 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Brea in the whole series.

How does Brea's commute time compare?

Metric	Brea	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	28.3 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	14.7%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	1.2%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.5%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Brea is 28.3 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.

0.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 1.2% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Brea, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Brea, CA is the smallest of the 6 cities compared here, 42,002 residents against a local median of 58,782. Nothing separates Brea, CA sharply from the cities around it. Each measure below lands within 15% of the local median, close enough that the differences are within what survey sampling alone would produce.

The largest of those small differences is one-way commute, 9% above the local median at 28.3 min against 25.9 min. Brea, CA has the 4th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Brea, CA	42,002	28.3 min #4/6	14.7% #2/6	7:49 AM #4/6
Placentia, CA	53,416	23.1 min	15.6%	7:39 AM
Rowland Heights, CA	44,324	31.0 min	14.5%	8:13 AM
Fullerton, CA	142,090	25.9 min	14.7%	7:58 AM
Anaheim, CA	333,336	23.9 min	11.2%	7:34 AM
La Habra, CA	58,782	30.1 min	13.8%	7:39 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Brea, California.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 236 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,305 at a typical national wage. That's 20% more than the typical California commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Brea, California. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Do people use public transit in Brea, California?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.5% of commuters use it versus 2.9% in California, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.