San Pablo Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in San Pablo, 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, 3:43 PM

How much time do drivers in San Pablo spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:43 PM

Commute Time Burden in San Pablo: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in San Pablo spend about 61 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 256 hours, about 10.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 31% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 7.3 minutes.

San Pablo 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 Pablo would save about 102 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,175 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 Pablo	30.7 min	61.5 min	256 hrs/yr	$7,938	3,094
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 Pablo Commute Map

On average, it takes 30.7 minutes to get to work in San Pablo. That's 37% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 8.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in San Pablo

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in San Pablo: 1332.4 times less than the California average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Taking a taxi is unusually common in San Pablo: 5.3 times more than the California average (1.1% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in San Pablo, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in San Pablo 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	Public Transportation	Walked	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	81.3%	2.1%	12.7%	0.9%	1.8%	0.0%	1.1%	0.0%
2010	82.0%	2.8%	10.9%	0.8%	2.0%	0.0%	1.4%	0.1%
2011	80.8%	2.6%	11.7%	1.3%	1.7%	0.0%	1.9%	0.1%
2012	82.6%	2.5%	10.2%	1.4%	2.0%	0.1%	0.9%	0.2%
2013	83.8%	2.4%	10.7%	1.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.9%	0.2%
2014	80.8%	2.2%	12.9%	2.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.9%	0.2%
2015	80.1%	1.8%	13.5%	3.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2016	80.4%	1.8%	12.7%	3.8%	0.9%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2017	79.8%	2.9%	13.0%	3.1%	0.9%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	79.2%	3.2%	13.0%	3.2%	1.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	82.0%	2.9%	11.0%	3.0%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	81.5%	4.1%	10.9%	2.1%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	82.1%	5.5%	9.7%	0.9%	0.8%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	81.3%	6.3%	8.7%	1.5%	1.2%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	81.7%	7.2%	5.8%	1.9%	2.2%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%
2024	80.2%	8.7%	5.3%	2.3%	1.8%	1.1%	0.5%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2013 at 83.8% and lowest in 2018 at 79.2%. Overall it fell from 81.3% in 2009 to 80.2% in 2024, down 1.1 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in San Pablo: its share of workers rose from 2.1% in 2009 to 8.7% in 2024, up 6.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 12.7% to 5.3% of workers (down 7.4 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2023 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 3.8% in 2016 and has since fallen back to 2.3%.

Commute Start Times in San Pablo

What Time Do People Leave for Work in San Pablo?

The bars show when commuters in San Pablo 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		8.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		6.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		6.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		4.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.2%
7:30-7:59 AM		9.1%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		5.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		4.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.7%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in San Pablo is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 11.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.6% across California. Early starts are more common than in California: 20.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in California: 36.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.7%) 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 Pablo, 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 Pablo 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 Pablo 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 Pablo	California	United States
2009	7:36 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:38 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:41 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:39 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:49 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:40 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:47 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:28 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:26 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:20 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:20 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:24 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:28 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:34 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:32 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:48 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in San Pablo were on the road by 7:48 AM, 12 minutes later than in 2009 (7:36 AM). The shift is sharper than across California, where the typical start moved 6 minutes later. Commuters in San Pablo now leave 10 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 Pablo has moved 28 minutes later.

How does San Pablo's commute time compare?

Metric	San Pablo	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.7 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.7%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.3%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	5.3%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in San Pablo is 30.7 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.

5.3% commute by public transit, higher than the 2.9% in California. 2.3% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

San Pablo, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
San Pablo, CA	32,837	30.7 min #1/2	8.7% #2/2	7:48 AM #1/2
Richmond, CA	119,289	31.2 min	13.7%	7:49 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in San Pablo, California.

What is the financial impact of commuting in San Pablo, California?

Commuters here spend an estimated 256 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,938 at a typical national wage. That's 31% more than the typical California commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in San Pablo, California?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in San Pablo, 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.