Manhattan Beach Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Manhattan Beach: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Manhattan Beach spend about 52 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 218 hours, about 9.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 11% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 2.7 minutes.

Manhattan Beach 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 Manhattan Beach would save about 87 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,704 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)
Manhattan Beach	26.2 min	52.3 min	218 hrs/yr	$6,760	4,435
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.

Manhattan Beach Commute Map

On average, it takes 26.2 minutes to get to work in Manhattan Beach. That's 17% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 39.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Manhattan Beach

• Car: 54.7% unusually low
• Worked at Home: 39.1%
• Walked: 3.8%
• Other: 0.9%
• Public Transportation: 0.7% unusually low
• Bicycle: 0.7%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Manhattan Beach: 4.3 times less than the California average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Driving is 27% less common in Manhattan Beach than the California average (54.7% vs 75.2%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Manhattan Beach: 4.2 times less than the California average (0.7% vs 2.9%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Manhattan Beach, versus 0.2% in California.

Commute Mode Trends in Manhattan Beach, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Manhattan Beach 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
• Walked
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Bicycle
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	86.0%	8.8%	2.6%	0.6%	0.8%	0.9%	0.0%	0.4%
2010	86.3%	8.7%	2.9%	0.4%	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.5%
2011	85.2%	9.1%	2.8%	0.7%	0.6%	0.8%	0.0%	0.7%
2012	84.7%	9.5%	2.7%	0.7%	1.2%	0.7%	0.0%	0.5%
2013	84.8%	9.4%	2.4%	1.2%	1.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.4%
2014	83.9%	10.3%	1.9%	1.4%	1.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	83.6%	10.4%	1.6%	1.9%	1.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	84.6%	10.2%	1.7%	1.4%	1.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	85.2%	10.2%	1.8%	1.2%	1.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	84.8%	10.3%	1.9%	1.0%	1.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	84.6%	10.6%	1.9%	1.2%	0.9%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	77.2%	17.7%	3.2%	0.9%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	67.9%	26.7%	3.5%	0.6%	0.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	64.6%	28.9%	4.1%	0.8%	1.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	59.1%	34.2%	4.4%	1.0%	0.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	54.7%	39.1%	3.8%	0.9%	0.7%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 86.3%. Overall it fell from 86.0% in 2009 to 54.7% in 2024, down 31.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Manhattan Beach: its share of workers rose from 8.8% in 2009 to 39.1% in 2024, up 30.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 28.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit peaked at 1.8% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 0.7%.

Commute Start Times in Manhattan Beach

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Manhattan Beach?

The bars show when commuters in Manhattan Beach 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 Manhattan Beach1.8% California6.7%	1.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Manhattan Beach1.1% California4.5%	1.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Manhattan Beach1.5% California4.5%	1.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Manhattan Beach8.4% California8.4%	8.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Manhattan Beach4.8% California7.5%	4.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Manhattan Beach10.8% California13.1%	10.8%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Manhattan Beach15.5% California10.2%	15.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Manhattan Beach19.3% California12.6%	19.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Manhattan Beach8.5% California5.8%	8.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Manhattan Beach11.9% California8.6%	11.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Manhattan Beach8.7% California3.9%	8.7%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Manhattan Beach1.0% California1.8%	1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Manhattan Beach3.2% California6.9%	3.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Manhattan Beach3.6% California5.5%	3.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Manhattan Beach is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 19.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.6% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 4.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in California: 50.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (28.5%) 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 Manhattan Beach, 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 Manhattan Beach 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 Manhattan Beach 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.

• Manhattan Beach
• California
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Manhattan Beach	California	United States
2009	8:05 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:00 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:59 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:00 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:00 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:01 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:03 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:05 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:06 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:10 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:10 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:14 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:17 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:17 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:12 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:10 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Manhattan Beach were on the road by 8:10 AM, 5 minutes later than in 2009 (8:05 AM). California followed the same path, with the typical start moving 6 minutes later. Commuters in Manhattan Beach now leave 32 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Manhattan Beach's commute time compare?

Metric	Manhattan Beach	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	26.2 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	39.1%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	3.8%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.7%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Manhattan Beach is 26.2 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.

0.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 3.8% commute by walking, higher than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau