Petaluma Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Petaluma, 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, 3:40 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Petaluma?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:40 PM

Commute Time Burden in Petaluma: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Petaluma spend about 54 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 227 hours, about 9.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 16% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 3.7 minutes.

Petaluma 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 Petaluma would save about 91 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,810 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)
Petaluma	27.2 min	54.4 min	227 hrs/yr	$7,026	4,087
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.

Petaluma Commute Map

On average, it takes 27.2 minutes to get to work in Petaluma. That's 21% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 19.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Petaluma

Commute Mode Trends in Petaluma, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Petaluma 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	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	85.0%	4.5%	3.8%	4.0%	0.7%	1.8%	0.0%	0.3%
2010	85.2%	5.6%	2.8%	3.9%	0.9%	1.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	84.5%	6.2%	3.0%	3.6%	0.8%	1.8%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	85.3%	5.8%	2.8%	3.4%	0.7%	1.7%	0.0%	0.3%
2013	86.4%	5.5%	2.7%	2.6%	0.6%	1.8%	0.0%	0.3%
2014	86.4%	5.7%	3.1%	2.6%	0.5%	1.2%	0.1%	0.5%
2015	86.4%	5.9%	3.1%	2.5%	0.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2016	87.4%	6.1%	2.5%	2.7%	0.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.4%
2017	86.7%	6.6%	2.8%	2.7%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%
2018	85.3%	7.2%	2.8%	2.9%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.4%
2019	85.6%	7.5%	2.1%	3.1%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.5%
2020	84.6%	9.1%	1.9%	2.5%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.7%
2021	82.1%	12.2%	1.7%	2.0%	0.6%	0.7%	0.1%	0.6%
2022	80.3%	14.6%	1.4%	2.1%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.5%
2023	77.3%	17.4%	2.5%	1.3%	0.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.3%
2024	75.1%	19.6%	2.1%	1.8%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2016 at 87.4%. Overall it fell from 85.0% in 2009 to 75.1% in 2024, down 9.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Petaluma: its share of workers rose from 4.5% in 2009 to 19.6% in 2024, up 15.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 12.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.0% to 1.8% of workers (down 2.2 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Petaluma

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Petaluma?

The bars show when commuters in Petaluma 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		5.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.7%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		7.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.8%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		4.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Petaluma is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 12.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 13.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in California: 45.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.9%) 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 Petaluma, 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 Petaluma 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 Petaluma 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	Petaluma	California	United States
2009	7:38 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:38 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:46 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:46 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:43 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:41 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:41 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:37 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:35 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:39 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:38 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:41 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:41 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:49 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:45 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:47 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Petaluma were on the road by 7:47 AM, 9 minutes later than in 2009 (7:38 AM). The shift is sharper than across California, where the typical start moved 6 minutes later. Commuters in Petaluma now leave 9 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 Petaluma has moved 9 minutes later.

How does Petaluma's commute time compare?

Metric	Petaluma	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	27.2 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	19.6%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.8%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Petaluma is 27.2 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.

1.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 2.1% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Petaluma, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Petaluma, CA	41,738	27.2 min #2/2	19.6% #1/2	7:47 AM #2/2
Rohnert Park, CA	31,979	22.5 min	12.4%	7:38 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Petaluma, California.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 227 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,026 at a typical national wage. That's 16% more than the typical California commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Petaluma, California?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Petaluma, California. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.