Fontana Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Fontana, 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, 3:43 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Fontana?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:43 PM

Commute Time Burden in Fontana: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Fontana spend about 53 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 219 hours, about 9.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 12% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 2.8 minutes.

Fontana holds about 0.5% of California's population but accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Fontana would save about 88 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,719 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)
Fontana	26.3 min	52.6 min	219 hrs/yr	$6,798	3,893
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.

Fontana Commute Map

On average, it takes 26.3 minutes to get to work in Fontana. That's 17% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Fontana

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Fontana: 3.0 times less than the California average (0.1% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually rare in Fontana: 13.1 times less than the California average (0.1% vs 0.7%).

Commute Mode Trends in Fontana, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Fontana 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	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	93.2%	2.9%	1.7%	1.2%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2010	92.7%	3.3%	2.2%	0.9%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2011	92.3%	3.3%	2.4%	1.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2012	93.0%	3.2%	2.2%	0.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2013	92.9%	3.4%	2.1%	0.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2014	92.8%	3.4%	2.1%	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2015	92.6%	3.7%	2.1%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2016	92.4%	4.1%	2.0%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2017	91.9%	4.6%	1.9%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2018	90.7%	5.3%	2.0%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%
2019	89.8%	6.4%	1.9%	0.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2020	89.3%	6.7%	1.7%	1.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2021	86.9%	9.4%	1.5%	1.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2022	85.9%	10.5%	1.3%	1.2%	0.6%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2023	84.5%	12.4%	1.3%	1.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	84.1%	12.8%	1.3%	1.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 93.2% in 2009 to 84.1% in 2024, down 9.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 12 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Fontana: its share of workers rose from 2.9% in 2009 to 12.8% in 2024, up 9.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Fontana

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Fontana?

The bars show when commuters in Fontana 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		13.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		7.9%
5:30-5:59 AM		6.8%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		10.7%
7:30-7:59 AM		6.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.1%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.7%
12:00-3:59 PM		9.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Fontana is 12:00-4:59 AM, when 13.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 6.7% across California. Early starts are more common than in California: 28.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in California: 34.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.3%) 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 Fontana, 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 Fontana 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 Fontana 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	Fontana	California	United States
2009	7:12 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:13 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:13 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:14 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:16 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:15 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:14 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:15 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:16 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:12 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:11 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:09 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:05 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:08 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:09 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:15 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Fontana were on the road by 7:15 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:12 AM). Across California the shift was bigger still, with the typical start moving 6 minutes later. Commuters in Fontana now leave 23 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Fontana has moved 3 minutes later.

How does Fontana's commute time compare?

Metric	Fontana	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	26.3 min	23.5 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	12:00 AM – 04:59 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	12.8%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	1.1%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.3%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Fontana is 26.3 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.

1.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 1.1% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Fontana, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Fontana, CA is the largest of the 5 cities compared here, 212,634 residents against a local median of 110,827. Where Fontana, CA breaks from the cities next to it is work from home, sitting 58% above the local median of 8.1% at 12.8%.

The cities themselves spread 5.8% on work from home, so Fontana, CA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Fontana, CA has the 2nd highest work from home of the 5 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Fontana, CA	212,634	26.3 min #2/5	12.8% #2/5	7:14 AM #4/5
Bloomington, CA	20,369	23.6 min	8.0%	6:41 AM
Rialto, CA	109,274	26.6 min	8.1%	7:07 AM
Jurupa Valley, CA	112,380	27.4 min	8.0%	7:07 AM
Rancho Cucamonga, CA	175,413	27.6 min	13.8%	7:39 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Fontana, California.

Is commuting expensive in Fontana, California?

Commuters here spend an estimated 219 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,798 at a typical national wage. That's 12% more than the typical California commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Fontana, California?

Traffic peaks between 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM in Fontana, 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.