Chico Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Chico, 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, 7:50 PM

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

Map AI 10/21/26, 7:50 PM

Commute Time Burden in Chico: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Chico spend about 26 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 108 hours, about 4.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 45% less time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 10.5 minutes.

Chico holds about 0.2% of California's population but accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Chico would save about 43 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,345 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)
Chico	13.0 min	26.0 min	108 hrs/yr	$3,363	3,322
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.

Chico Commute Map

On average, it takes 13.0 minutes to get to work in Chico. That's 42% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 13.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Chico

Public transit is unusually rare in Chico: 3.2 times less than the California average (0.9% vs 2.9%).

Commute Mode Trends in Chico, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Chico 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	Bicycle	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	82.4%	4.1%	5.5%	5.2%	0.8%	1.6%	0.1%	0.3%
2010	82.4%	4.6%	5.2%	5.0%	0.6%	1.9%	0.0%	0.4%
2011	82.3%	4.5%	5.0%	5.6%	0.4%	1.7%	0.0%	0.6%
2012	81.9%	5.0%	5.4%	5.4%	0.6%	1.1%	0.0%	0.6%
2013	82.0%	5.4%	5.0%	5.3%	0.4%	1.2%	0.0%	0.6%
2014	82.0%	5.2%	4.7%	5.3%	0.5%	1.5%	0.2%	0.7%
2015	82.5%	4.8%	4.8%	5.2%	0.6%	1.3%	0.2%	0.6%
2016	82.8%	5.1%	4.5%	4.9%	0.7%	1.4%	0.2%	0.5%
2017	83.6%	4.4%	4.3%	4.9%	0.6%	1.4%	0.1%	0.6%
2018	83.2%	4.6%	5.0%	4.6%	0.6%	1.2%	0.2%	0.4%
2019	84.5%	4.2%	4.6%	4.4%	0.5%	1.2%	0.2%	0.4%
2020	82.8%	7.1%	4.1%	3.5%	0.9%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2021	81.0%	9.3%	4.6%	3.1%	0.9%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%
2022	79.9%	11.8%	4.0%	2.3%	0.8%	0.7%	0.3%	0.2%
2023	79.0%	12.5%	3.6%	2.2%	1.3%	0.9%	0.1%	0.3%
2024	78.2%	13.7%	3.7%	1.6%	1.4%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2019 at 84.5%. Overall it fell from 82.4% in 2009 to 78.2% in 2024, down 4.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Chico: its share of workers rose from 4.1% in 2009 to 13.7% in 2024, up 9.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Biking lost the most ground, falling from 5.2% to 1.6% of workers (down 3.6 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 Chico

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Chico?

The bars show when commuters in Chico 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		3.9%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.8%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		9.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		14.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		13.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.9%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Chico is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 14.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 10.2% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 9.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in California: 46.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (32.9%) 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 Chico, 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 Chico 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 Chico 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	Chico	California	United States
2009	8:03 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:00 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:58 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:59 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:55 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:56 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:55 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:55 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:54 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:54 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:53 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:55 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:56 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:58 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:01 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:05 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Chico were on the road by 8:05 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (8:03 AM). Across California the shift was bigger still, with the typical start moving 6 minutes later. Commuters in Chico now leave 27 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 Chico has moved 12 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Chico in the whole series.

How does Chico's commute time compare?

Metric	Chico	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.0 min	23.5 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 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	13.7%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	3.7%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.9%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Chico is 13.0 minutes, shorter than the 23.5 minutes in California.

0.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 3.7% commute by walking, higher than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Chico, California.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 108 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,363 at a typical national wage. That's 45% less than the typical California commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Chico, 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.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Chico, California?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.9% of commuters use it versus 2.9% in California, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.