Commuting in San Joaquin 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, 8:23 PM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in San Joaquin County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:23 PM
Commute Time Burden in San Joaquin County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in San Joaquin County spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 193 hours, about 8.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% less time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 0.3 minutes.
San Joaquin County holds about 2.0% of California's population and accounts for roughly 2.0% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in San Joaquin County would save about 77 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,396 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 Joaquin County
23.2 min
46.4 min
193 hrs/yr
$5,991
2,414
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
23.2
minutes to get to work in
San Joaquin County.
That's 3% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Slower than 75% of counties in California
The most common departure window is 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.6% work from home.
How People Get to Work in San Joaquin County
Car:
86.0%
Worked at Home:
10.6%
Walked:
1.2%
Public Transportation:
0.9%unusually low
Other:
0.7%
Bicycle:
0.3%
Taxi:
0.2%
Motorcycle:
0.2%
Public transit is unusually rare in San Joaquin County: 3.2 times less than the California average (0.9% vs 2.9%).
Commute Mode Trends in San Joaquin County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in San Joaquin 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
Walked
Public Transportation
Other
Bicycle
Taxi
Motorcycle
2009
91.5%
3.7%
1.8%
1.5%
0.7%
0.5%
0.0%
0.3%
2010
91.1%
4.1%
1.8%
1.4%
0.8%
0.5%
0.0%
0.3%
2011
90.7%
4.4%
1.8%
1.4%
0.9%
0.5%
0.0%
0.4%
2012
90.8%
4.3%
1.8%
1.4%
0.9%
0.5%
0.0%
0.3%
2013
91.1%
4.2%
1.9%
1.4%
0.7%
0.5%
0.0%
0.2%
2014
91.2%
4.0%
1.9%
1.4%
0.8%
0.6%
0.0%
0.2%
2015
91.4%
3.7%
1.9%
1.5%
0.8%
0.5%
0.0%
0.2%
2016
91.3%
3.9%
1.9%
1.4%
0.7%
0.5%
0.0%
0.2%
2017
91.3%
4.0%
1.6%
1.5%
0.7%
0.6%
0.0%
0.2%
2018
91.8%
3.9%
1.5%
1.5%
0.6%
0.5%
0.0%
0.2%
2019
91.6%
4.1%
1.4%
1.7%
0.6%
0.4%
0.1%
0.2%
2020
90.8%
5.2%
1.3%
1.6%
0.5%
0.3%
0.1%
0.2%
2021
89.7%
6.6%
1.1%
1.4%
0.6%
0.4%
0.1%
0.2%
2022
88.2%
8.0%
1.2%
1.3%
0.7%
0.3%
0.1%
0.2%
2023
87.2%
9.3%
1.1%
1.1%
0.8%
0.3%
0.1%
0.2%
2024
86.0%
10.6%
1.2%
0.9%
0.7%
0.3%
0.2%
0.2%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2018 at 91.8%. Overall it fell from 91.5% in 2009 to 86.0% in 2024, down 5.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in San Joaquin County: its share of workers rose from 3.7% in 2009 to 10.6% in 2024, up 6.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.8% to 1.2% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).
Commute Start Times in San Joaquin County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in San Joaquin County?
The bars show when commuters in San Joaquin 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.
San Joaquin CountyCaliforniaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in San Joaquin County is 12:00-4:59 AM, when 12.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 6.7% across California. Early starts are more common than in California: 22.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in California: 39.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.0%) 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 San Joaquin 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 Joaquin 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 Joaquin 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 Joaquin County
California
United States
2009
7:23 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:24 AM
7:41 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:24 AM
7:41 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:25 AM
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:25 AM
7:43 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:25 AM
7:43 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:22 AM
7:43 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:20 AM
7:43 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:20 AM
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:20 AM
7:42 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:21 AM
7:42 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:21 AM
7:42 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:21 AM
7:42 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:21 AM
7:43 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:23 AM
7:44 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:22 AM
7:45 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in San Joaquin County were on the road by 7:22 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across California, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 6 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in San Joaquin County now leave 16 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).
How does San Joaquin County's commute time compare?
Metric
San Joaquin County
California
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
23.2 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
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
08:00 AM – 08:29 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
10.6%
17.2%
15.0%
Walked
1.2%
2.4%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.9%
2.9%
3.2%
The average commute time in San Joaquin County is about the same as in California.
0.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 1.2% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.
San Joaquin County, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
San Joaquin County, CA is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 797,313 residents against a local median of 1,163,035. Where San Joaquin County, CA breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 44% below the local median of 19.1% at 10.6%.
The counties themselves spread 17.6% on work from home, so San Joaquin County, CA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. San Joaquin County, CA has the 5th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in San Joaquin County, California.
Is commuting expensive in San Joaquin County, California?
Commuters here spend an estimated 193 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,991 at a typical national wage. That's 1% less than the typical California commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in San Joaquin County, California?
Traffic peaks between 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM in San Joaquin County, California. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.
Do people use public transit in San Joaquin County, California?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.9% of commuters use it versus 2.9% in California, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
Which counties in California have the fastest and slowest commutes?
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).