Nevada County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Nevada County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Nevada County spend about 35 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 148 hours, about 6.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 24% less time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 5.7 minutes.

Nevada County holds about 0.3% of California's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Nevada County would save about 59 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,833 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)
Nevada County	17.7 min	35.5 min	148 hrs/yr	$4,583	1,075
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 17.7 minutes to get to work in Nevada County. That's 21% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 75% of counties in California

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 25.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Nevada County

• Car: 69.2%
• Worked at Home: 25.0%
• Walked: 2.5%
• Other: 1.5%
• Bicycle: 0.9%
• Motorcycle: 0.5%
• Public Transportation: 0.4% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Nevada County: 3.3 times less than the California average (0.1% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Nevada County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Nevada 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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Walked
• Other
• Bicycle
• Motorcycle
• Public Transportation
• Taxi

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Public Transportation	Taxi
2009	85.5%	8.6%	3.6%	0.7%	0.6%	0.3%	0.8%	0.0%
2010	85.5%	9.2%	3.3%	0.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%
2011	84.7%	10.1%	3.2%	0.8%	0.6%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%
2012	84.7%	10.7%	2.6%	0.7%	0.6%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%
2013	83.7%	11.9%	2.0%	0.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.8%	0.0%
2014	83.7%	11.5%	2.1%	0.6%	0.7%	0.3%	1.1%	0.0%
2015	83.3%	11.1%	2.1%	1.0%	1.0%	0.2%	1.2%	0.0%
2016	83.2%	10.4%	2.6%	1.1%	1.0%	0.3%	1.3%	0.0%
2017	82.9%	10.4%	2.8%	1.5%	0.9%	0.2%	1.2%	0.1%
2018	81.4%	11.9%	3.1%	1.6%	0.8%	0.3%	0.8%	0.1%
2019	80.3%	13.6%	2.8%	1.8%	0.7%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%
2020	78.8%	16.2%	2.6%	1.4%	0.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	76.9%	19.3%	1.9%	1.2%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	74.0%	21.8%	2.2%	0.9%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	73.7%	22.1%	1.8%	1.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	69.2%	25.0%	2.5%	1.5%	0.9%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 85.5% in 2009 to 69.2% in 2024, down 16.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Nevada County: its share of workers rose from 8.6% in 2009 to 25.0% in 2024, up 16.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.6% to 2.5% of workers (down 1.1 percentage points).

Biking overtook public transit to become the 5th most common choice in the 2019 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Nevada County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Nevada County?

The bars show when commuters in Nevada 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	12:00-4:59 AM Nevada County3.7% California6.7%	3.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Nevada County2.7% California4.5%	2.7%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Nevada County4.7% California4.5%	4.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Nevada County7.9% California8.4%	7.9%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Nevada County7.1% California7.5%	7.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Nevada County13.7% California13.1%	13.7%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Nevada County13.1% California10.2%	13.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Nevada County12.5% California12.6%	12.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Nevada County9.7% California5.8%	9.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Nevada County11.1% California8.6%	11.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Nevada County3.0% California3.9%	3.0%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Nevada County2.7% California1.8%	2.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Nevada County4.9% California6.9%	4.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Nevada County3.3% California5.5%	3.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Nevada County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 11.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in California: 46.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.0%) 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 Nevada 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 Nevada 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 Nevada 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.

• Nevada County
• California
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Nevada County	California	United States
2009	7:47 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:49 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:48 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:48 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:47 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:45 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:44 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:49 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:54 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:53 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:55 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:58 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:55 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:51 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:50 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:54 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Nevada County were on the road by 7:54 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:47 AM). California followed the same path, with the typical start moving 6 minutes later. Commuters in Nevada County now leave 16 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Nevada County's commute time compare?

Metric	Nevada County	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.7 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	25.0%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.5%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.4%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Nevada County is 17.7 minutes, shorter than the 23.5 minutes in California.

0.4% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 2.5% commute by walking, higher than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau