La Quinta Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

Commuting in La Quinta, 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, 7:51 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in La Quinta?

Map AI 10/21/26, 7:51 PM

Commute Time Burden in La Quinta: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in La Quinta spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 170 hours, about 7.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 13% less time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 3.0 minutes.

La Quinta 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 La Quinta would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,112 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)
La Quinta	20.4 min	40.9 min	170 hrs/yr	$5,281	4,196
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.

La Quinta Commute Map

On average, it takes 20.4 minutes to get to work in La Quinta. That's 9% shorter 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 17.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in La Quinta

Public transit is unusually rare in La Quinta: 12.0 times less than the California average (0.2% vs 2.9%).

Commute Mode Trends in La Quinta, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in La Quinta 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	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi
2009	89.7%	5.5%	0.7%	1.2%	0.4%	0.4%	2.1%	0.0%
2010	88.0%	6.6%	1.0%	1.5%	0.4%	0.5%	2.0%	0.0%
2011	89.0%	6.2%	0.8%	1.2%	0.4%	0.9%	1.4%	0.0%
2012	89.4%	6.5%	0.6%	0.8%	0.3%	1.2%	1.1%	0.0%
2013	90.3%	5.8%	0.7%	0.7%	0.2%	1.5%	0.7%	0.0%
2014	90.5%	6.5%	0.9%	0.4%	0.1%	0.9%	0.6%	0.0%
2015	89.7%	7.1%	0.5%	0.7%	0.2%	0.6%	1.2%	0.0%
2016	88.3%	8.3%	0.6%	1.0%	0.4%	0.1%	1.3%	0.0%
2017	86.3%	9.6%	0.9%	1.2%	0.6%	0.0%	1.4%	0.0%
2018	85.7%	10.0%	0.8%	1.3%	0.7%	0.0%	1.6%	0.0%
2019	85.5%	9.7%	1.1%	1.5%	0.7%	0.1%	1.3%	0.0%
2020	85.4%	10.9%	1.5%	1.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%
2021	83.5%	13.3%	1.5%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%
2022	81.8%	15.5%	1.2%	0.7%	0.2%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%
2023	80.9%	15.7%	1.3%	1.1%	0.0%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2024	79.5%	17.4%	1.1%	0.8%	0.4%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2014 at 90.5%. Overall it fell from 89.7% in 2009 to 79.5% in 2024, down 10.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in La Quinta: its share of workers rose from 5.5% in 2009 to 17.4% in 2024, up 11.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.1% to 0.2% of workers (down 1.9 percentage points).

Walking overtook public transit to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Biking peaked at 1.5% in 2013 and has since fallen back to 0.3%.

Commute Start Times in La Quinta

What Time Do People Leave for Work in La Quinta?

The bars show when commuters in La Quinta 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		5.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.2%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		17.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		10.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		5.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.7%
12:00-3:59 PM		4.1%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in La Quinta is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 17.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.6% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 13.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in California: 50.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.3%) 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 La Quinta, 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 La Quinta 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 La Quinta 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	La Quinta	California	United States
2009	7:40 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:45 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:45 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:42 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:46 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:45 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:43 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:46 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:45 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:48 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:50 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:50 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:51 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:48 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:45 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:50 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in La Quinta were on the road by 7:50 AM, 10 minutes later than in 2009 (7:40 AM). The shift is sharper than across California, where the typical start moved 6 minutes later. Commuters in La Quinta now leave 12 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does La Quinta's commute time compare?

Metric	La Quinta	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.4 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	17.4%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	1.1%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in La Quinta is 20.4 minutes, shorter than the 23.5 minutes in California.

0.2% 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

La Quinta, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How La Quinta, CA compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
La Quinta, CA	35,812	20.4 min #2/3	17.4% #1/3	7:49 AM #2/3
Indio, CA	86,533	20.9 min	4.8%	7:21 AM
Palm Desert, CA	47,249	17.5 min	15.0%	7:58 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in La Quinta, California.

Is commuting expensive in La Quinta, California?

Commuters here spend an estimated 170 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,281 at a typical national wage. That's 13% less than the typical California commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in La Quinta, 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.

Do people use public transit in La Quinta, California?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.2% of commuters use it versus 2.9% in California, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.