Fountain Valley Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Fountain Valley: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Fountain Valley spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 191 hours, about 8.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 2% less time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 0.5 minutes.

Fountain Valley 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 Fountain Valley would save about 77 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,374 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)
Fountain Valley	23.0 min	46.0 min	191 hrs/yr	$5,935	5,194
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.

Fountain Valley Commute Map

On average, it takes 23.0 minutes to get to work in Fountain Valley. That's 3% longer 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 16.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Fountain Valley

• Car: 80.4%
• Worked at Home: 16.2%
• Other: 1.6%
• Public Transportation: 0.9% unusually low
• Walked: 0.5% unusually low
• Bicycle: 0.2% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Taxi: < 0.1%

Walking is unusually rare in Fountain Valley: 5.2 times less than the California average (0.5% vs 2.4%).

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

Biking is unusually rare in Fountain Valley: 3.4 times less than the California average (0.2% vs 0.7%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Fountain Valley: just 0.7%, 4.6 times below the California average of 3.1%.

Commute Mode Trends in Fountain Valley, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Fountain Valley 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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Walked
• Bicycle
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Public Transportation	Walked	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	91.2%	5.0%	0.5%	1.2%	1.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.4%
2010	90.3%	5.6%	0.4%	1.6%	1.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.5%
2011	90.8%	5.0%	0.3%	1.7%	1.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.4%
2012	90.7%	5.6%	0.3%	1.7%	1.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.4%
2013	91.4%	5.0%	0.6%	1.3%	0.9%	0.3%	0.1%	0.4%
2014	91.1%	4.9%	0.6%	1.2%	1.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.4%
2015	92.2%	4.4%	0.6%	1.0%	0.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.4%
2016	91.7%	5.0%	0.7%	1.2%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.4%
2017	92.7%	4.2%	0.7%	1.2%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.4%
2018	92.7%	4.3%	0.4%	1.2%	0.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%
2019	92.9%	4.8%	0.4%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	91.5%	6.6%	0.4%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	89.7%	8.3%	0.9%	0.3%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	86.7%	11.2%	0.7%	0.4%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	83.0%	14.1%	1.3%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2024	80.4%	16.2%	1.6%	0.9%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	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 92.9%. Overall it fell from 91.2% in 2009 to 80.4% in 2024, down 10.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Fountain Valley: its share of workers rose from 5.0% in 2009 to 16.2% in 2024, up 11.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.1% to 0.5% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Fountain Valley

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Fountain Valley?

The bars show when commuters in Fountain Valley 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	12:00-4:59 AM Fountain Valley4.5% California6.7%	4.5%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Fountain Valley3.5% California4.5%	3.5%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Fountain Valley4.1% California4.5%	4.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Fountain Valley9.1% California8.4%	9.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Fountain Valley6.2% California7.5%	6.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Fountain Valley15.8% California13.1%	15.8%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Fountain Valley10.5% California10.2%	10.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Fountain Valley11.8% California12.6%	11.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Fountain Valley4.5% California5.8%	4.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Fountain Valley10.2% California8.6%	10.2%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Fountain Valley5.2% California3.9%	5.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Fountain Valley2.7% California1.8%	2.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Fountain Valley6.6% California6.9%	6.6%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Fountain Valley5.3% California5.5%	5.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Fountain Valley is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 12.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush looks much like California's: 44.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.0%) 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 Fountain Valley, 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 Fountain Valley 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 Fountain Valley 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.

• Fountain Valley
• California
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Fountain Valley	California	United States
2009	7:50 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:48 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:46 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:48 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:46 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:42 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:44 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	7:43 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:48 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:49 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:52 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:53 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:51 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:49 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Fountain Valley were on the road by 7:49 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across California, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 6 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Fountain Valley now leave 12 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Fountain Valley's commute time compare?

Metric	Fountain Valley	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.0 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	16.2%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	0.5%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.9%	2.9%	3.2%

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

0.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 0.5% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau