Whittier Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Whittier, 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, 3:39 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Whittier?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:39 PM

Commute Time Burden in Whittier: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Whittier spend about 62 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 259 hours, about 10.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 32% more time on the road than the California average of 23.5 minutes each way, a difference of 7.5 minutes.

Whittier holds about 0.2% of California's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Whittier would save about 103 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,206 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)
Whittier	31.0 min	62.0 min	259 hrs/yr	$8,014	4,159
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.

Whittier Commute Map

On average, it takes 31.0 minutes to get to work in Whittier. That's 38% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 11.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Whittier

Commute Mode Trends in Whittier, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Whittier 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	Bicycle	Other	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	90.6%	2.7%	2.6%	2.7%	0.3%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%
2010	90.1%	2.9%	2.2%	2.6%	0.5%	1.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2011	89.6%	3.0%	2.2%	2.8%	0.6%	1.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2012	89.4%	2.9%	2.3%	3.1%	0.4%	1.5%	0.4%	0.0%
2013	89.7%	2.9%	2.2%	2.8%	0.3%	1.6%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	89.5%	3.1%	1.9%	3.2%	0.5%	1.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	90.1%	3.3%	1.6%	3.2%	0.3%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	90.0%	4.1%	1.6%	2.8%	0.2%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	91.0%	4.3%	1.5%	2.2%	0.2%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	91.1%	4.5%	1.5%	2.1%	0.2%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	91.8%	4.4%	1.5%	1.5%	0.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	90.8%	5.1%	1.4%	1.5%	0.4%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%
2021	88.6%	7.3%	1.2%	1.4%	0.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%
2022	87.3%	8.4%	1.0%	1.7%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2023	84.6%	10.7%	1.4%	1.7%	0.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.2%
2024	84.2%	11.3%	1.5%	1.3%	0.7%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2019 at 91.8%. Overall it fell from 90.6% in 2009 to 84.2% in 2024, down 6.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Whittier: its share of workers rose from 2.7% in 2009 to 11.3% in 2024, up 8.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.7% to 1.3% of workers (down 1.4 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Whittier

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Whittier?

The bars show when commuters in Whittier 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		6.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.6%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		18.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.4%
8:00-8:29 AM		12.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.9%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		4.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Whittier is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 18.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across California. Early starts are about as common as in California: 15.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in California: 50.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.3% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.2%) 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 Whittier, 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 Whittier 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 Whittier 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	Whittier	California	United States
2009	7:23 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:24 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:27 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:33 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:31 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:30 AM	7:43 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:27 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:23 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:20 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:19 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:18 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:19 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:21 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:24 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:25 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:27 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Whittier were on the road by 7:27 AM, 4 minutes later than in 2009 (7:23 AM). California followed the same path, with the typical start moving 6 minutes later. Commuters in Whittier now leave 11 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 Whittier has moved 9 minutes later.

How does Whittier's commute time compare?

Metric	Whittier	California	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	31.0 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	11.3%	17.2%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	2.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.3%	2.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Whittier is 31.0 minutes, longer than the 23.5 minutes in California.

1.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.9% in California. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in California.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Whittier, CA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Whittier, CA is the largest of the 4 cities compared here, 85,117 residents against a local median of 52,314. Whittier, CA's work from home, at 11.3%, runs 33% above the 8.5% typical of the cities around it.

The cities themselves spread 4.9% on work from home, so Whittier, CA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Whittier, CA has the 2nd highest work from home of the 4 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Whittier, CA	85,117	31.0 min #2/4	11.3% #2/4	7:27 AM #3/4
South Whittier, CA	52,576	30.2 min	8.5%	7:26 AM
West Whittier-Los Nietos, CA	23,021	31.3 min	8.5%	7:22 AM
Hacienda Heights, CA	52,314	31.1 min	13.4%	8:05 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Whittier, California.

Is living in Whittier, California good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 259 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $8,014 at a typical national wage. That's 32% more than the typical California commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Whittier, California?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Whittier, 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.