San Gabriel Commute Time Map & Patterns
HelpCommuting in San Gabriel, California: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
Commute Time Burden in San Gabriel: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in San Gabriel spend about 54 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 224 hours, about 9.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 14% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 3.3 minutes.
San Gabriel 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 San Gabriel would save about 89 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,772 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 Gabriel | 26.8 min | 53.6 min | 224 hrs/yr | $6,930 | 5,328 |
| 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.
San Gabriel Commute Map
On average, it takes 26.8 minutes to get to work in San Gabriel. That's 20% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 13.3% work from home.
How People Get to Work in San Gabriel
- Car: 82.0%
- Worked at Home: 13.3%
- Walked: 1.9%
- Public Transportation: 1.2%
- Bicycle: 1.1%
- Other: 0.4%
- Motorcycle: < 0.1%
- Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
Taking a taxi is unusually rare in San Gabriel: 5600.2 times less than the California average (0.0% vs 0.2%).
Commute Mode Trends in San Gabriel, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in San Gabriel 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.
Show commute mode data by year
| Year | Car | Worked at Home | Walked | Public Transportation | Bicycle | Other | Motorcycle | Taxi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 89.1% | 2.8% | 2.5% | 4.2% | 0.4% | 0.7% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 2010 | 87.4% | 3.0% | 3.6% | 4.4% | 0.7% | 0.7% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 2011 | 87.3% | 3.2% | 3.9% | 3.8% | 0.7% | 1.0% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2012 | 87.5% | 3.3% | 3.4% | 3.7% | 1.0% | 1.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2013 | 87.3% | 4.0% | 3.4% | 3.3% | 1.1% | 0.8% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2014 | 88.0% | 3.9% | 3.4% | 3.0% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2015 | 89.0% | 4.0% | 2.4% | 3.1% | 0.7% | 0.7% | 0.2% | 0.0% |
| 2016 | 88.8% | 4.0% | 2.6% | 3.4% | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2017 | 89.1% | 4.2% | 2.5% | 3.4% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2018 | 89.2% | 4.4% | 2.1% | 3.6% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2019 | 89.4% | 4.3% | 1.4% | 3.7% | 0.4% | 0.6% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2020 | 87.6% | 5.7% | 1.5% | 3.5% | 0.9% | 0.7% | 0.2% | 0.0% |
| 2021 | 85.0% | 9.1% | 1.5% | 2.5% | 1.0% | 0.7% | 0.2% | 0.0% |
| 2022 | 83.6% | 10.9% | 1.3% | 2.0% | 1.0% | 0.8% | 0.3% | 0.0% |
| 2023 | 81.8% | 12.1% | 1.5% | 2.2% | 1.4% | 0.7% | 0.3% | 0.0% |
| 2024 | 82.0% | 13.3% | 1.9% | 1.2% | 1.1% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2019 at 89.4% and lowest in 2023 at 81.8%. Overall it fell from 89.1% in 2009 to 82.0% in 2024, down 7.1 percentage points.
Working from home gained the most ground in San Gabriel: its share of workers rose from 2.8% in 2009 to 13.3% in 2024, up 10.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.2% to 1.2% of workers (down 3.0 percentage points).
Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2013 release and has stayed ahead since.
Walking peaked at 3.9% in 2011 and has since fallen back to 1.9%.
Commute Start Times in San Gabriel
What Time Do People Leave for Work in San Gabriel?
The bars show when commuters in San Gabriel 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
San Gabriel3.1%
California6.7%
|
3.1% |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00-5:29 AM |
5:00-5:29 AM
San Gabriel1.5%
California4.5%
|
1.5% |
| 5:30-5:59 AM |
5:30-5:59 AM
San Gabriel2.3%
California4.5%
|
2.3% |
| 6:00-6:29 AM |
6:00-6:29 AM
San Gabriel3.4%
California8.4%
|
3.4% |
| 6:30-6:59 AM |
6:30-6:59 AM
San Gabriel6.1%
California7.5%
|
6.1% |
| 7:00-7:29 AM |
7:00-7:29 AM
San Gabriel8.7%
California13.1%
|
8.7% |
| 7:30-7:59 AM |
7:30-7:59 AM
San Gabriel8.0%
California10.2%
|
8.0% |
| 8:00-8:29 AM |
8:00-8:29 AM
San Gabriel22.2%
California12.6%
|
22.2% |
| 8:30-8:59 AM |
8:30-8:59 AM
San Gabriel11.0%
California5.8%
|
11.0% |
| 9:00-9:59 AM |
9:00-9:59 AM
San Gabriel15.1%
California8.6%
|
15.1% |
| 10:00-10:59 AM |
10:00-10:59 AM
San Gabriel7.3%
California3.9%
|
7.3% |
| 11:00-11:59 AM |
11:00-11:59 AM
San Gabriel1.5%
California1.8%
|
1.5% |
| 12:00-3:59 PM |
12:00-3:59 PM
San Gabriel6.6%
California6.9%
|
6.6% |
| 4:00-11:59 PM |
4:00-11:59 PM
San Gabriel3.3%
California5.5%
|
3.3% |
San Gabriel California Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in San Gabriel is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 22.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.6% across California. Early starts are less common than in California: 7.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush looks much like California's: 45.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (33.7%) 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 Gabriel, 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 Gabriel 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 Gabriel 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.
Show typical departure times by year
| Year | San Gabriel | California | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 8:10 AM | 7:39 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2010 | 8:09 AM | 7:41 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2011 | 8:10 AM | 7:41 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2012 | 8:11 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2013 | 8:15 AM | 7:43 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2014 | 8:15 AM | 7:43 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2015 | 8:16 AM | 7:43 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2016 | 8:19 AM | 7:43 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2017 | 8:18 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2018 | 8:16 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2019 | 8:16 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2020 | 8:17 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2021 | 8:18 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2022 | 8:19 AM | 7:43 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2023 | 8:21 AM | 7:44 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2024 | 8:23 AM | 7:45 AM | 7:38 AM |
In 2024, half of commuters in San Gabriel were on the road by 8:23 AM, 13 minutes later than in 2009 (8:10 AM). The shift is sharper than across California, where the typical start moved 6 minutes later. Commuters in San Gabriel now leave 45 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 San Gabriel has moved 7 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for San Gabriel in the whole series.
How does San Gabriel's commute time compare?
| Metric | San Gabriel | California | US Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. Commute Time | 26.8 min | 23.5 min | 22.4 min |
| Departure Window | 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM | 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM | 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM |
| Secondary Departure Window | 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM | 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM |
| Work From Home | 13.3% | 17.2% | 15.0% |
| Walked | 1.9% | 2.4% | 2.4% |
| Public Transit | 1.2% | 2.9% | 3.2% |
The average commute time in San Gabriel is 26.8 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.
1.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 1.9% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.
San Gabriel, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities
San Gabriel, CA is typical in size for this group, 40,046 residents against a local median of 43,490, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Where San Gabriel, CA breaks from the cities next to it is work from home, sitting 16% below the local median of 15.7% at 13.3%.
The cities themselves spread 8.1% on work from home, so San Gabriel, CA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. San Gabriel, CA has the 4th highest work from home of the 5 areas compared here.
| Area | Population | One-way commute | Work from home | Typical departure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Gabriel, CA | 40,046 | 26.8 min #2/5 | 13.3% #4/5 | 8:23 AM #5/5 |
| East San Gabriel, CA | 20,561 | 28.0 min | 17.0% | 8:17 AM |
| Rosemead, CA | 50,370 | 23.2 min | 9.0% | 8:18 AM |
| Alhambra, CA | 80,973 | 28.2 min | 14.4% | 8:03 AM |
| Temple City, CA | 36,611 | 27.8 min | 17.1% | 8:21 AM |
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about commuting in San Gabriel, California.
Is living in San Gabriel, California good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 224 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,930 at a typical national wage. That's 14% more than the typical California commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in San Gabriel, California?
Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in San Gabriel, California. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.