Monterey Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Monterey, 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, 6:39 PM

How much time do drivers in Monterey spend on the road daily?

Map AI 10/21/26, 6:39 PM

Commute Time Burden in Monterey: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Monterey spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 131 hours, about 5.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 33% less time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 7.8 minutes.

Monterey holds about 0.1% of California's population but accounts for roughly 0.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Monterey would save about 52 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,621 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)
Monterey	15.7 min	31.4 min	131 hrs/yr	$4,053	3,236
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.

Monterey Commute Map

On average, it takes 15.7 minutes to get to work in Monterey. That's 30% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 23.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Monterey

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Monterey: 324.4 times less than the California average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Walking is unusually common in Monterey: 4.2 times more than the California average (10.0% vs 2.4%).

Monterey stands out for active commuting: 11.7% of workers walk or bike to work, 3.8 times the California average of 3.1%.

Commute Mode Trends in Monterey, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Monterey 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	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	61.6%	8.3%	20.7%	4.4%	2.4%	2.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2010	61.2%	8.8%	20.3%	4.4%	3.2%	1.8%	0.1%	0.3%
2011	65.2%	8.2%	16.6%	4.6%	3.1%	1.9%	0.1%	0.4%
2012	66.6%	7.2%	15.9%	5.0%	3.1%	1.6%	0.1%	0.6%
2013	79.5%	6.9%	7.2%	2.1%	2.6%	1.0%	0.1%	0.5%
2014	81.2%	5.6%	6.9%	3.0%	2.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.5%
2015	72.2%	5.8%	12.5%	5.5%	2.5%	0.8%	0.0%	0.7%
2016	71.4%	6.4%	12.9%	5.6%	2.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.7%
2017	68.0%	7.0%	14.4%	6.5%	2.7%	0.7%	0.0%	0.7%
2018	66.8%	7.3%	15.1%	6.7%	2.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.7%
2019	67.9%	8.8%	13.8%	5.6%	2.5%	0.7%	0.0%	0.7%
2020	68.2%	14.3%	11.6%	4.0%	1.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
2021	67.7%	16.6%	9.7%	3.6%	1.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%
2022	60.7%	22.0%	10.7%	3.8%	1.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	61.3%	21.1%	10.9%	3.3%	1.9%	1.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2024	60.5%	23.6%	10.0%	2.7%	1.7%	1.1%	0.3%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2014 at 81.2%. Overall it fell from 61.6% in 2009 to 60.5% in 2024, down 1.1 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Monterey: its share of workers rose from 8.3% in 2009 to 23.6% in 2024, up 15.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 14.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 20.7% to 10.0% of workers (down 10.7 percentage points).

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

Public transit peaked at 6.7% in 2018 and has since fallen back to 2.7%.

Commute Start Times in Monterey

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Monterey?

The bars show when commuters in Monterey 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		3.5%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		1.3%
6:00-6:29 AM		3.5%
6:30-6:59 AM		11.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		20.2%
7:30-7:59 AM		18.3%
8:00-8:29 AM		13.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.1%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.5%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Monterey is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 20.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 5.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in California: 62.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.9%) 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 Monterey, 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 Monterey 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 Monterey 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	Monterey	California	United States
2009	7:46 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:46 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:48 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:49 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:56 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:52 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:45 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:43 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:45 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:44 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:50 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:56 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:54 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:46 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:47 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:45 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Monterey were on the road by 7:45 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:46 AM). That goes against the trend across California, where the typical commuter now leaves 6 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Monterey now leave 7 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 Monterey has moved 4 minutes earlier.

How does Monterey's commute time compare?

Metric	Monterey	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.7 min	23.5 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 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	23.6%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	10.0%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.7%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Monterey is 15.7 minutes, shorter than the 23.5 minutes in California.

2.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 10.0% commute by walking, higher than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Monterey, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Monterey, CA compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Monterey, CA	26,676	15.7 min #1/2	23.6% #1/2	7:45 AM #1/2
Seaside, CA	26,690	18.5 min	7.8%	8:03 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Monterey, California.

Is commuting expensive in Monterey, California?

Commuters here spend an estimated 131 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,053 at a typical national wage. That's 33% less than the typical California commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Monterey, California. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Is Monterey, California a good location for remote and hybrid workers?

About 23.6% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Monterey would save about 52 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,621 at the same national wage assumption used above.