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Kings County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Kings County, 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, 8:00 PM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in Kings County?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:00 PM

Commute Time Burden in Kings County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Kings County spend about 40 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 168 hours, about 7.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 14% less time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 3.4 minutes.

Kings County holds about 0.4% of California's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Kings County would save about 67 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,078 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)
Kings County 20.1 min 40.2 min 168 hrs/yr $5,195 1,048
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.

Commute Time Map: California Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in California
  1. Inyo County (11.1 min)
  2. Mono County (12.0 min)
  3. Del Norte County (12.1 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in California
  1. Alpine County (31.3 min)
  2. San Benito County (31.2 min)
  3. Contra Costa County (31.0 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Kings County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 20.1 minutes to get to work in Kings County. That's 10% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 5.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Kings County

  • Car: 90.6% unusually high
  • Worked at Home: 5.2% unusually low
  • Walked: 2.0%
  • Other: 0.8%
  • Motorcycle: 0.5%
  • Public Transportation: 0.4% unusually low
  • Bicycle: 0.4%
  • Taxi: 0.2%

Driving is 20% more common in Kings County than the California average (90.6% vs 75.2%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Kings County: 7.1 times less than the California average (0.4% vs 2.9%).

Working from home is unusually rare in Kings County: 3.3 times less than the California average (5.2% vs 17.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Kings County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Kings County 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 Other Motorcycle Public Transportation Bicycle Taxi
2009 89.1% 3.4% 3.0% 1.4% 0.8% 1.7% 0.6% 0.0%
2010 89.6% 3.6% 2.8% 1.1% 0.8% 1.6% 0.6% 0.0%
2011 90.2% 3.2% 3.1% 1.2% 0.5% 1.2% 0.6% 0.0%
2012 91.3% 2.9% 2.5% 1.1% 0.5% 1.2% 0.6% 0.0%
2013 91.3% 2.8% 2.5% 0.9% 0.4% 1.7% 0.4% 0.0%
2014 91.1% 3.1% 2.7% 0.8% 0.5% 1.4% 0.3% 0.0%
2015 91.5% 3.2% 2.7% 0.8% 0.6% 0.9% 0.3% 0.0%
2016 91.2% 3.7% 2.3% 0.8% 0.5% 0.9% 0.5% 0.0%
2017 90.0% 5.0% 2.2% 0.8% 0.5% 0.9% 0.7% 0.0%
2018 90.7% 5.1% 1.9% 0.8% 0.5% 0.3% 0.7% 0.0%
2019 91.4% 4.6% 1.9% 0.8% 0.3% 0.2% 0.7% 0.0%
2020 91.1% 5.1% 1.8% 0.8% 0.4% 0.3% 0.5% 0.0%
2021 91.6% 5.1% 1.4% 0.8% 0.5% 0.4% 0.2% 0.0%
2022 92.0% 4.5% 1.5% 0.8% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.0%
2023 91.0% 4.8% 1.9% 0.9% 0.6% 0.5% 0.4% 0.0%
2024 90.6% 5.2% 2.0% 0.8% 0.5% 0.4% 0.4% 0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2022 at 92.0%. Overall it rose from 89.1% in 2009 to 90.6% in 2024, up 1.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Kings County: its share of workers rose from 3.4% in 2009 to 5.2% in 2024, up 1.8 percentage points.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.7% to 0.4% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Kings County

  • Early BirdThe 2nd-earliest start among California's 58 counties: half of commuters are on the road by 7:07 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Kings County?

The bars show when commuters in Kings County 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
8.3%
5:00-5:29 AM
8.5%
5:30-5:59 AM
8.2%
6:00-6:29 AM
11.6%
6:30-6:59 AM
10.8%
7:00-7:29 AM
11.1%
7:30-7:59 AM
9.1%
8:00-8:29 AM
7.8%
8:30-8:59 AM
2.0%
9:00-9:59 AM
3.1%
10:00-10:59 AM
2.5%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM
7.7%
4:00-11:59 PM
8.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Kings County is 6:00-6:29 AM, when 11.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 8.4% across California. Early starts are more common than in California: 25.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in California: 38.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.6%) 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 Kings County, 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 Kings County 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 Kings County 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 Kings County California United States
2009 7:08 AM 7:39 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:09 AM 7:41 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:14 AM 7:41 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:13 AM 7:42 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:14 AM 7:43 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:14 AM 7:43 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:14 AM 7:43 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:14 AM 7:43 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:12 AM 7:42 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:11 AM 7:42 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:10 AM 7:42 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:09 AM 7:42 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:08 AM 7:42 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:07 AM 7:43 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:06 AM 7:44 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:07 AM 7:45 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Kings County were on the road by 7:07 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:08 AM). That goes against the trend across California, where the typical commuter now leaves 6 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Kings County now leave 31 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 Kings County has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Kings County's commute time compare?

Metric Kings County California US Average
Avg. Commute Time 20.1 min 23.5 min 22.4 min
Departure Window 06:00 AM – 06:29 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 5.2% 17.2% 15.0%
Walked 2.0% 2.4% 2.4%
Public Transit 0.4% 2.9% 3.2%

The average commute time in Kings County is 20.1 minutes, shorter than the 23.5 minutes in California.

0.4% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 2.0% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Kings County, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Kings County, CA is the smallest of the 6 counties compared here, 153,298 residents against a local median of 478,693. Kings County, CA's work from home, at 5.2%, runs 46% below the 9.7% typical of the counties around it.

The counties themselves spread 9.1% on work from home, so Kings County, CA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Kings County, CA has the 6th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Kings County, CA 153,298 20.1 min #3/6 5.2% #6/6 7:07 AM #1/6
Fresno County, CA 1,016,723 20.9 min 10.1% 7:27 AM
San Luis Obispo County, CA 281,514 18.2 min 15.2% 7:51 AM
Tulare County, CA 478,693 18.6 min 6.1% 7:16 AM
Madera County, CA 161,170 23.4 min 9.7% 7:13 AM
Kern County, CA 915,060 20.6 min 7.5% 7:17 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Kings County, California.

Is living in Kings County, California good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 168 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,195 at a typical national wage. That's 14% less than the typical California commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Kings County, California?

Traffic peaks between 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM in Kings County, 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.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Kings County, California?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.4% of commuters use it versus 2.9% in California, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in California?

Among counties in California, the shortest average commutes are in Inyo County (11.1 min), Mono County (12.0 min), Del Norte County (12.1 min). The longest are in Alpine County (31.3 min), San Benito County (31.2 min), Contra Costa County (31.0 min).