Commuting in San Benito County, California: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:15 PM
How much time do drivers in San Benito County spend on the road daily?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:15 PM
Commute Time Burden in San Benito County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in San Benito County spend about 62 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 260 hours, about 10.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 33% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 7.8 minutes.
San Benito County holds about 0.2% of California's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in San Benito County would save about 104 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,228 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)
San Benito County
31.2 min
62.5 min
260 hrs/yr
$8,070
1,653
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.
On average, it takes
31.2
minutes to get to work in
San Benito County.
That's 39% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Among the 3 slowest counties in California
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 11.8% work from home.
How People Get to Work in San Benito County
Car:
84.9%
Worked at Home:
11.8%
Other:
0.9%
Public Transportation:
0.8%unusually low
Walked:
0.8%unusually low
Bicycle:
0.6%
Motorcycle:
0.2%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Walking is unusually rare in San Benito County: 3.1 times less than the California average (0.8% vs 2.4%).
Public transit is unusually rare in San Benito County: 3.6 times less than the California average (0.8% vs 2.9%).
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in San Benito County, versus 0.2% in California.
Commute Mode Trends in San Benito County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in San Benito 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.
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
Public Transportation
Walked
Bicycle
Motorcycle
Taxi
2009
88.5%
4.0%
0.4%
4.6%
2.1%
0.2%
0.1%
0.0%
2010
89.2%
4.2%
0.7%
3.5%
2.0%
0.2%
0.3%
0.0%
2011
91.0%
5.0%
0.8%
0.9%
1.4%
0.7%
0.2%
0.0%
2012
90.8%
4.9%
0.7%
0.6%
1.7%
0.9%
0.3%
0.0%
2013
92.6%
3.8%
0.4%
0.6%
1.6%
0.7%
0.3%
0.0%
2014
92.1%
4.2%
0.4%
0.7%
1.5%
0.7%
0.4%
0.0%
2015
92.7%
3.5%
0.3%
0.8%
1.6%
0.8%
0.4%
0.0%
2016
93.6%
3.1%
0.5%
0.5%
1.5%
0.4%
0.4%
0.0%
2017
93.8%
3.4%
0.5%
0.5%
1.2%
0.2%
0.4%
0.0%
2018
92.6%
3.7%
0.8%
0.6%
1.6%
0.3%
0.5%
0.0%
2019
93.1%
3.2%
0.8%
0.6%
1.4%
0.3%
0.6%
0.0%
2020
91.0%
5.5%
1.0%
0.6%
1.1%
0.5%
0.3%
0.0%
2021
89.1%
7.9%
0.7%
0.8%
0.9%
0.3%
0.3%
0.0%
2022
87.6%
9.0%
0.9%
0.8%
1.1%
0.3%
0.3%
0.0%
2023
86.4%
10.3%
1.0%
0.9%
0.7%
0.4%
0.3%
0.0%
2024
84.9%
11.8%
0.9%
0.8%
0.8%
0.6%
0.2%
0.0%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2017 at 93.8%. Overall it fell from 88.5% in 2009 to 84.9% in 2024, down 3.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in San Benito County: its share of workers rose from 4.0% in 2009 to 11.8% in 2024, up 7.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.6% to 0.8% of workers (down 3.8 percentage points).
Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2010 release and has stayed ahead since.
Commute Start Times in San Benito County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in San Benito County?
The bars show when commuters in San Benito 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 AMSan Benito County9.5%California6.7%
9.5%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMSan Benito County5.7%California4.5%
5.7%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMSan Benito County9.0%California4.5%
9.0%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMSan Benito County9.2%California8.4%
9.2%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMSan Benito County8.9%California7.5%
8.9%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMSan Benito County12.2%California13.1%
12.2%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMSan Benito County9.4%California10.2%
9.4%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMSan Benito County9.6%California12.6%
9.6%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMSan Benito County4.6%California5.8%
4.6%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMSan Benito County5.2%California8.6%
5.2%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMSan Benito County2.8%California3.9%
2.8%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMSan Benito County1.1%California1.8%
1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMSan Benito County8.5%California6.9%
8.5%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMSan Benito County4.3%California5.5%
4.3%
San Benito CountyCaliforniaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in San Benito County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 12.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across California. Early starts are more common than in California: 24.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in California: 40.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.8%) 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 San Benito 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 San Benito 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 San Benito 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.
Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show typical departure times by year
Year
San Benito County
California
United States
2009
7:17 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:21 AM
7:41 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:25 AM
7:41 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:23 AM
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:21 AM
7:43 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:16 AM
7:43 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:16 AM
7:43 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:19 AM
7:43 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:19 AM
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:22 AM
7:42 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:22 AM
7:42 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:20 AM
7:42 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:15 AM
7:42 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:17 AM
7:43 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:13 AM
7:44 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:19 AM
7:45 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in San Benito County were on the road by 7:19 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:17 AM). Across California the shift was bigger still, with the typical start moving 6 minutes later. Commuters in San Benito County now leave 19 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 San Benito County has moved 3 minutes earlier.
How does San Benito County's commute time compare?
Metric
San Benito County
California
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
31.2 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
11.8%
17.2%
15.0%
Walked
0.8%
2.4%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.8%
2.9%
3.2%
The average commute time in San Benito County is 31.2 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.
0.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 0.8% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.
San Benito County, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
San Benito County, CA is the smallest of the 6 counties compared here, 67,290 residents against a local median of 437,328. The measure that sets San Benito County, CA apart most is one-way commute: 31.2 min, 43% above the local median of 21.9 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.
Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 11.8% against a local median of 9.8%, 20% above it. The counties themselves sit within 2.2 min of each other on one-way commute, a tighter band than the gap between any of them and San Benito County, CA, which makes it a genuine outlier here rather than one end of a wide local spread. San Benito County, CA has the 6th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in San Benito County, California.
Is commuting expensive in San Benito County, California?
Commuters here spend an estimated 260 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $8,070 at a typical national wage. That's 33% more than the typical California commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in San Benito County, California?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in San Benito County, 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.
How common is public transit use in San Benito County, California?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.8% of commuters use it versus 2.9% in California, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
How do commute times compare across counties in California?
Among counties in California, the shortest average commutes are in Inyo County (11.1 min), Mono County (12.0 min), Del Norte County (12.1 min). The longest are in Alpine County (31.3 min), San Benito County (31.2 min), Contra Costa County (31.0 min).