Los Angeles Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Los Angeles, 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, 3:37 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in Los Angeles?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:37 PM

Commute Time Burden in Los Angeles: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Los Angeles spend about 60 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 252 hours, about 10.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 29% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 6.7 minutes.

Los Angeles holds about 9.8% of California's population but accounts for roughly 12.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Los Angeles would save about 101 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,122 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)
Los Angeles	30.2 min	60.4 min	252 hrs/yr	$7,806	4,652
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.

Los Angeles Commute Map

On average, it takes 30.2 minutes to get to work in Los Angeles. That's 35% longer 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 19.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Los Angeles

Commute Mode Trends in Los Angeles, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Los Angeles 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	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	78.5%	4.9%	10.9%	3.5%	1.1%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	78.0%	5.1%	11.0%	3.5%	1.1%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	77.7%	5.3%	11.1%	3.7%	1.1%	0.9%	0.1%	0.2%
2012	77.3%	5.5%	11.1%	3.7%	1.1%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2013	77.1%	5.6%	11.0%	3.7%	1.1%	1.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2014	77.0%	5.7%	11.0%	3.6%	1.2%	1.1%	0.1%	0.3%
2015	77.2%	5.7%	10.6%	3.6%	1.3%	1.2%	0.1%	0.3%
2016	77.6%	5.8%	10.1%	3.5%	1.4%	1.2%	0.1%	0.3%
2017	77.9%	5.9%	9.8%	3.5%	1.4%	1.1%	0.2%	0.3%
2018	78.2%	6.1%	9.4%	3.5%	1.3%	1.1%	0.2%	0.3%
2019	78.4%	6.3%	9.0%	3.4%	1.3%	1.0%	0.4%	0.2%
2020	76.6%	9.2%	8.3%	3.3%	1.2%	0.8%	0.4%	0.2%
2021	74.1%	12.4%	7.7%	3.2%	1.3%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%
2022	71.9%	15.0%	7.2%	3.2%	1.3%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%
2023	70.2%	17.3%	6.7%	3.1%	1.4%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%
2024	68.5%	19.5%	6.1%	3.2%	1.5%	0.6%	0.4%	0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 78.5% in 2009 to 68.5% in 2024, down 10.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Los Angeles: its share of workers rose from 4.9% in 2009 to 19.5% in 2024, up 14.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 13.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 10.9% to 6.1% of workers (down 4.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Los Angeles

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Los Angeles?

The bars show when commuters in Los Angeles 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		5.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.2%
6:30-6:59 AM		6.5%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.5%
7:30-7:59 AM		8.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		13.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		10.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.8%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Los Angeles is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 13.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.6% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 12.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush looks much like California's: 42.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.2%) 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 Los Angeles, 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 Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles 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	Los Angeles	California	United States
2009	7:49 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:53 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:54 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:56 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:57 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:57 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:56 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:57 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:57 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:57 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:58 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:59 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:58 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:00 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:01 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:02 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Los Angeles were on the road by 8:02 AM, 13 minutes later than in 2009 (7:49 AM). The shift is sharper than across California, where the typical start moved 6 minutes later. Commuters in Los Angeles now leave 24 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 Los Angeles has moved 4 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Los Angeles in the whole series.

How does Los Angeles's commute time compare?

Metric	Los Angeles	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.2 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	19.5%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	3.2%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	6.1%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Los Angeles is 30.2 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.

6.1% commute by public transit, higher than the 2.9% in California. 3.2% commute by walking, higher than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Los Angeles, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Los Angeles, CA is the largest of the 5 cities compared here, 3,843,367 residents against a local median of 37,354. Los Angeles, CA's work from home, at 19.5%, runs 37% below the 30.8% typical of the cities around it.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 30.2 min against a local median of 24.7 min, 23% above it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 23% above the local median it puts Los Angeles, CA at the weaker end of the local range. The cities themselves sit within 2.8% of each other on work from home, a tighter band than the gap between any of them and Los Angeles, CA, which makes it a genuine outlier here rather than one end of a wide local spread. Los Angeles, CA has the 5th highest work from home of the 5 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Los Angeles, CA	3,843,367	30.2 min #5/5	19.5% #5/5	8:02 AM #1/5
Beverly Hills, CA	31,624	22.7 min	30.1%	8:40 AM
West Hollywood, CA	34,884	27.4 min	31.3%	8:34 AM
Culver City, CA	39,823	26.5 min	32.9%	8:29 AM
Burbank, CA	104,547	22.8 min	30.4%	8:16 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Los Angeles, California.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 252 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,806 at a typical national wage. That's 29% more than the typical California commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Los Angeles, California?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Los Angeles, 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.