Cathedral City Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Cathedral City, 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, 7:49 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Cathedral City?

Map AI 10/21/26, 7:49 PM

Commute Time Burden in Cathedral City: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Cathedral City spend about 36 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 149 hours, about 6.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 24% less time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 5.6 minutes.

Cathedral City 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 Cathedral City would save about 59 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,843 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)
Cathedral City	17.8 min	35.7 min	149 hrs/yr	$4,607	3,867
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.

Cathedral City Commute Map

On average, it takes 17.8 minutes to get to work in Cathedral City. That's 20% shorter 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 9.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Cathedral City

Commute Mode Trends in Cathedral City, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Cathedral City 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	90.0%	6.3%	0.9%	1.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	88.5%	7.8%	1.0%	1.9%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	88.1%	7.7%	0.8%	2.4%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2012	87.6%	7.7%	0.9%	2.4%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	87.9%	6.9%	1.1%	2.5%	1.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	87.7%	5.4%	1.0%	3.6%	1.7%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	88.8%	4.8%	1.2%	3.1%	1.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	89.5%	3.9%	1.3%	2.8%	1.6%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%
2017	89.9%	3.6%	1.4%	3.0%	1.3%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%
2018	91.0%	3.5%	1.1%	2.8%	0.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%
2019	91.7%	4.3%	1.1%	1.9%	0.4%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%
2020	91.5%	4.8%	1.3%	1.3%	0.4%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%
2021	90.7%	5.5%	1.1%	1.4%	0.7%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2022	89.7%	6.8%	1.1%	1.2%	0.7%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2023	88.3%	7.8%	1.0%	1.1%	0.9%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2024	86.7%	9.1%	1.4%	1.1%	0.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2019 at 91.7%. Overall it fell from 90.0% in 2009 to 86.7% in 2024, down 3.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Cathedral City: its share of workers rose from 6.3% in 2009 to 9.1% in 2024, up 2.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.6% to 1.1% of workers (down 0.5 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Cathedral City

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Cathedral City?

The bars show when commuters in Cathedral City 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		3.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		8.3%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		6.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		9.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Cathedral City is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 11.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush looks much like California's: 43.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (31.4%) 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 Cathedral City, 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 Cathedral City 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 Cathedral City 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	Cathedral City	California	United States
2009	7:41 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:40 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:38 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:44 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:46 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:47 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:52 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:53 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:46 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:47 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:44 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:32 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:38 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:41 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:45 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:52 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Cathedral City were on the road by 7:52 AM, 11 minutes later than in 2009 (7:41 AM). The shift is sharper than across California, where the typical start moved 6 minutes later. Commuters in Cathedral City now leave 14 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 Cathedral City has moved 8 minutes later.

How does Cathedral City's commute time compare?

Metric	Cathedral City	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.8 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	9.1%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	1.4%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.1%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Cathedral City is 17.8 minutes, shorter than the 23.5 minutes in California.

1.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 1.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Cathedral City, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Cathedral City, CA	45,926	17.8 min #2/2	9.1% #2/2	7:52 AM #1/2
Palm Springs, CA	49,341	17.5 min	24.0%	8:03 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Cathedral City, California.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 149 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,607 at a typical national wage. That's 24% less than the typical California commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Cathedral City, California?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Cathedral City, 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.