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Phelan Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Phelan, 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, 3:29 PM
Is the commute in Phelan longer than the national average?
Map AI 9/24/26, 3:29 PM

Commute Time Burden in Phelan: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Phelan spend about 91 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 379 hours, about 15.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 94% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 22.0 minutes.

Phelan 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 Phelan would save about 152 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $4,703 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)
Phelan 45.5 min 91.0 min 379 hrs/yr $11,758 2,930
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.

Phelan Commute Map

On average, it takes 45.5 minutes to get to work in Phelan. That's 103% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 6.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Phelan

  • Car: 89.5%
  • Worked at Home: 6.0%
  • Other: 2.4%
  • Walked: 1.3%
  • Bicycle: 0.8%
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Phelan, versus 0.2% in California.

Public transit is essentially absent in Phelan, versus 2.9% in California.

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

Commute Mode Trends in Phelan, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Phelan 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 Other Walked Bicycle Public Transportation Taxi Motorcycle
2009 91.8% 4.1% 1.8% 0.0% 0.0% 2.0% 0.0% 0.4%
2010 92.2% 4.1% 1.9% 0.0% 0.0% 1.4% 0.0% 0.4%
2011 90.7% 5.9% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 1.8% 0.0% 1.0%
2012 92.2% 5.0% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 1.7% 0.0% 0.7%
2013 93.9% 5.3% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2014 94.2% 5.3% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2015 93.2% 5.9% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0%
2016 96.4% 2.7% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.3%
2017 96.4% 2.3% 0.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.3%
2018 94.4% 3.6% 1.4% 0.1% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.3%
2019 90.3% 8.1% 0.9% 0.2% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.3%
2020 87.0% 7.9% 4.7% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.3%
2021 85.4% 8.9% 5.5% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 86.5% 9.0% 3.8% 0.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 85.4% 10.9% 2.4% 1.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 89.5% 6.0% 2.4% 1.3% 0.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2016 at 96.4% and lowest in 2021 at 85.4%. Overall it fell from 91.8% in 2009 to 89.5% in 2024, down 2.3 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Phelan: its share of workers rose from 4.1% in 2009 to 6.0% in 2024, up 1.9 percentage points.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.0% to 0.0% of workers (down 2.0 percentage points).

Walking overtook public transit to become the 4th most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Working from home peaked at 10.9% in 2023 and has since fallen back to 6.0%.

Commute Start Times in Phelan

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Phelan?

The bars show when commuters in Phelan 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
20.6%
5:00-5:29 AM
7.6%
5:30-5:59 AM
10.4%
6:00-6:29 AM
12.4%
6:30-6:59 AM
4.0%
7:00-7:29 AM
5.7%
7:30-7:59 AM
6.2%
8:00-8:29 AM
9.7%
8:30-8:59 AM
1.4%
9:00-9:59 AM
3.0%
10:00-10:59 AM
4.9%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.6%
12:00-3:59 PM
7.9%
4:00-11:59 PM
4.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Phelan is 12:00-4:59 AM, when 20.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 6.7% across California. Early starts are more common than in California: 38.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in California: 25.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (22.0%) 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 Phelan, 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 Phelan 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 Phelan 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 Phelan California United States
2009 7:03 AM 7:39 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:06 AM 7:41 AM 7:38 AM
2011 6:52 AM 7:41 AM 7:38 AM
2012 6:43 AM 7:42 AM 7:38 AM
2013 6:37 AM 7:43 AM 7:39 AM
2014 6:30 AM 7:43 AM 7:39 AM
2015 6:44 AM 7:43 AM 7:38 AM
2016 6:47 AM 7:43 AM 7:38 AM
2017 6:53 AM 7:42 AM 7:38 AM
2018 6:55 AM 7:42 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:05 AM 7:42 AM 7:37 AM
2020 6:49 AM 7:42 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:11 AM 7:42 AM 7:37 AM
2022 6:52 AM 7:43 AM 7:37 AM
2023 6:34 AM 7:44 AM 7:38 AM
2024 6:27 AM 7:45 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Phelan were on the road by 6:27 AM, 36 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:03 AM). That goes against the trend across California, where the typical commuter now leaves 6 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Phelan now leave 70 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Phelan has moved 38 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Phelan in the whole series.

How does Phelan's commute time compare?

Metric Phelan California US Average
Avg. Commute Time 45.5 min 23.5 min 22.4 min
Departure Window 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 6.0% 17.2% 15.0%
Walked 1.3% 2.4% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 2.9% 3.2%

The average commute time in Phelan is 45.5 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 1.3% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Phelan, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Phelan, CA 20,302 45.5 min #2/2 6.0% #2/2 6:27 AM #1/2
Adelanto, CA 34,052 45.5 min 8.2% 7:08 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Phelan, California.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Phelan, California?

Commuters here spend an estimated 379 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $11,758 at a typical national wage. That's 94% more than the typical California commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Phelan, California?

Traffic peaks between 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM in Phelan, California. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Phelan, California?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 2.9% in California, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.