El Monte Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in El Monte, 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, 3:36 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:36 PM

Commute Time Burden in El Monte: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in El Monte spend about 48 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 198 hours, about 8.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 0.3 minutes.

El Monte holds about 0.3% of California's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in El Monte would save about 79 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,460 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)
El Monte	23.8 min	47.6 min	198 hrs/yr	$6,150	4,037
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.

El Monte Commute Map

On average, it takes 23.8 minutes to get to work in El Monte. That's 6% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 6.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in El Monte

Taking a taxi is unusually common in El Monte: 3.3 times more than the California average (0.7% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in El Monte, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in El Monte 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	Public Transportation	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	84.1%	3.7%	5.8%	3.2%	1.6%	1.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2010	83.6%	3.9%	6.3%	3.2%	1.6%	1.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	83.8%	4.2%	6.4%	3.0%	1.2%	1.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	84.7%	4.0%	6.4%	2.7%	0.9%	1.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	86.5%	3.4%	6.0%	2.4%	0.7%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	86.4%	3.4%	6.1%	2.5%	0.7%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	87.5%	3.5%	5.3%	2.4%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	87.7%	3.8%	4.8%	2.3%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	88.3%	3.8%	4.7%	2.1%	0.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	87.9%	3.9%	4.9%	1.9%	0.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	88.9%	3.5%	4.7%	1.6%	0.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2020	88.2%	3.9%	4.6%	1.9%	0.6%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	87.8%	4.5%	4.5%	1.5%	0.7%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%
2022	86.5%	4.9%	4.5%	1.8%	1.0%	0.8%	0.3%	0.2%
2023	86.5%	5.3%	3.9%	2.0%	0.9%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%
2024	85.1%	6.6%	3.4%	2.0%	1.1%	1.0%	0.7%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2019 at 88.9% and lowest in 2010 at 83.6%. Overall it rose from 84.1% in 2009 to 85.1% in 2024, up 1.0 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in El Monte: its share of workers rose from 3.7% in 2009 to 6.6% in 2024, up 2.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 5.8% to 3.4% of workers (down 2.4 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in El Monte

What Time Do People Leave for Work in El Monte?

The bars show when commuters in El Monte 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		8.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		6.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.6%
6:30-6:59 AM		6.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		7.5%
8:00-8:29 AM		13.2%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.9%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		4.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in El Monte is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 13.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.6% across California. Early starts are more common than in California: 19.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in California: 38.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (27.2%) 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 El Monte, 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 El Monte 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 El Monte 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	El Monte	California	United States
2009	7:25 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:29 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:30 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:34 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:37 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:35 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:37 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:41 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:41 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:39 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:38 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:42 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:38 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:40 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:41 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:44 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in El Monte were on the road by 7:44 AM, 19 minutes later than in 2009 (7:25 AM). The shift is sharper than across California, where the typical start moved 6 minutes later. Commuters in El Monte now leave 6 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 El Monte has moved 6 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for El Monte in the whole series.

How does El Monte's commute time compare?

Metric	El Monte	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.8 min	23.5 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	6.6%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.0%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.4%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in El Monte is 23.8 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.

3.4% commute by public transit, higher than the 2.9% in California. 2.0% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

El Monte, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How El Monte, CA compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
El Monte, CA	103,551	23.8 min #1/2	6.6% #2/2	7:44 AM #1/2
Temple City, CA	36,611	27.8 min	17.1%	8:21 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in El Monte, California.

What is the financial impact of commuting in El Monte, California?

Commuters here spend an estimated 198 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,150 at a typical national wage. That's 1% more than the typical California commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in El Monte, California?

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