Carmichael Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 10/21/26, 7:54 PM

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

Map AI 10/21/26, 7:54 PM

Commute Time Burden in Carmichael: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Carmichael spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 190 hours, about 7.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 3% less time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 0.7 minutes.

Carmichael holds about 0.2% of California's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Carmichael would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,353 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)
Carmichael	22.8 min	45.5 min	190 hrs/yr	$5,883	5,497
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.

Carmichael Commute Map

On average, it takes 22.8 minutes to get to work in Carmichael. That's 2% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 20.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Carmichael

Commute Mode Trends in Carmichael, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Carmichael 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	Walked	Public Transportation	Other	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	89.5%	4.5%	2.3%	2.2%	0.6%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	89.5%	5.0%	1.9%	2.2%	0.4%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%
2011	88.9%	5.6%	2.2%	2.1%	0.2%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	88.4%	6.0%	2.0%	2.3%	0.1%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%
2013	88.4%	5.6%	2.1%	2.6%	0.3%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%
2014	88.5%	5.7%	1.8%	2.5%	0.4%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%
2015	88.4%	6.1%	1.6%	2.4%	0.5%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%
2016	89.0%	5.8%	1.2%	2.2%	0.6%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%
2017	90.6%	5.3%	1.0%	1.6%	0.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2018	89.3%	6.6%	0.9%	1.5%	0.6%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%
2019	88.3%	8.2%	0.9%	1.1%	0.7%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%
2020	86.3%	10.4%	0.9%	0.9%	0.7%	0.2%	0.6%	0.1%
2021	82.9%	14.0%	0.8%	1.0%	0.7%	0.2%	0.4%	0.1%
2022	79.2%	17.1%	0.9%	0.8%	1.1%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%
2023	77.1%	19.1%	0.9%	1.1%	0.9%	0.4%	0.4%	0.2%
2024	75.2%	20.1%	1.8%	1.1%	0.8%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2017 at 90.6%. Overall it fell from 89.5% in 2009 to 75.2% in 2024, down 14.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Carmichael: its share of workers rose from 4.5% in 2009 to 20.1% in 2024, up 15.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.2% to 1.1% of workers (down 1.1 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Carmichael

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Carmichael?

The bars show when commuters in Carmichael 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		4.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.7%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.5%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.4%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Carmichael is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 12.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in California: 45.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.9%) 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 Carmichael, 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 Carmichael 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 Carmichael 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	Carmichael	California	United States
2009	7:35 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:36 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:39 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:38 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:41 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:37 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:38 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:37 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:37 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:37 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:37 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:37 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:40 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:42 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:45 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:48 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Carmichael were on the road by 7:48 AM, 12 minutes later than in 2009 (7:35 AM). The shift is sharper than across California, where the typical start moved 6 minutes later. Commuters in Carmichael now leave 10 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 Carmichael has moved 10 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Carmichael in the whole series.

How does Carmichael's commute time compare?

Metric	Carmichael	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.8 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	20.1%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	1.8%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.1%	2.9%	3.2%

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

1.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 1.8% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Carmichael, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Carmichael, CA is the 3rd largest of the 5 cities compared here, 76,270 residents against a local median of 64,160. Where Carmichael, CA breaks from the cities next to it is work from home, sitting 35% above the local median of 14.9% at 20.1%.

The cities themselves spread 6.1% on work from home, so Carmichael, CA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Carmichael, CA has the highest work from home of the 5 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Carmichael, CA	76,270	22.8 min #2/5	20.1% #1/5	7:48 AM #4/5
Foothill Farms, CA	35,501	23.5 min	12.7%	7:42 AM
North Highlands, CA	42,311	26.3 min	12.6%	7:39 AM
Arden-Arcade, CA	92,545	22.4 min	18.7%	7:50 AM
Citrus Heights, CA	86,009	23.3 min	17.0%	7:39 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Carmichael, California.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 190 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,883 at a typical national wage. That's 3% less than the typical California commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Carmichael, California?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Carmichael, California. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.