Hercules Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Hercules, 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, 7:52 PM

Is the commute in Hercules longer than the national average?

Map AI 10/21/26, 7:52 PM

Commute Time Burden in Hercules: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Hercules spend about 65 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 271 hours, about 11.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 39% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 9.1 minutes.

Hercules 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 Hercules would save about 109 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,364 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)
Hercules	32.6 min	65.1 min	271 hrs/yr	$8,409	3,371
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.

Hercules Commute Map

On average, it takes 32.6 minutes to get to work in Hercules. That's 45% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 18.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Hercules

Walking is unusually rare in Hercules: 5.4 times less than the California average (0.4% vs 2.4%).

Public transit is unusually common in Hercules: 3.4 times more than the California average (9.7% vs 2.9%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Hercules: 6939755.1 times less than the California average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually rare in Hercules: 3.7 times less than the California average (0.2% vs 0.7%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Hercules: just 0.6%, 4.9 times below the California average of 3.1%.

Commute Mode Trends in Hercules, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Hercules 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	Other	Walked	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	85.7%	2.9%	9.9%	0.6%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	83.2%	3.2%	11.5%	0.8%	0.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	83.7%	3.0%	11.2%	0.8%	0.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	83.5%	3.4%	10.7%	1.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	85.3%	2.1%	9.9%	1.6%	0.6%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2014	83.8%	2.6%	11.2%	1.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%
2015	84.3%	2.0%	11.4%	1.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	83.4%	2.6%	11.6%	1.5%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	84.9%	2.8%	10.8%	1.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	84.8%	4.3%	9.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	84.6%	5.4%	9.0%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	79.8%	8.5%	11.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	78.3%	11.2%	9.6%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	72.6%	15.3%	9.9%	1.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	70.3%	17.3%	9.9%	2.0%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	70.0%	18.0%	9.7%	1.6%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 85.7% in 2009 to 70.0% in 2024, down 15.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Hercules: its share of workers rose from 2.9% in 2009 to 18.0% in 2024, up 15.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 12.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 11.6% in 2016 and has since fallen back to 9.7%.

Commute Start Times in Hercules

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Hercules?

The bars show when commuters in Hercules 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		8.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		11.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		5.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		9.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		9.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.3%
12:00-3:59 PM		11.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		4.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Hercules is 12:00-3:59 PM, when 11.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 6.9% across California. Early starts are more common than in California: 20.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in California: 33.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (28.4%) 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 Hercules, 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 Hercules 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 Hercules 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	Hercules	California	United States
2009	7:38 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:32 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:30 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:26 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:23 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:27 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:26 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:34 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:33 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:33 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:37 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:36 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:35 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:37 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:46 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:41 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Hercules were on the road by 7:41 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:38 AM). Across California the shift was bigger still, with the typical start moving 6 minutes later. Commuters in Hercules now leave 4 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 Hercules has moved 4 minutes later.

How does Hercules's commute time compare?

Metric	Hercules	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	32.6 min	23.5 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	18.0%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	0.4%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	9.7%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Hercules is 32.6 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.

9.7% commute by public transit, higher than the 2.9% in California. 0.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Hercules, California.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 271 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $8,409 at a typical national wage. That's 39% more than the typical California commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Hercules, California?

Traffic peaks between 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM in Hercules, California. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Do people use public transit in Hercules, California?

Public transit usage is notably higher here than typical: about 9.7% of commuters use it versus 2.9% in California, making it a realistic option for many workers.