Los Alamos County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Los Alamos County, New Mexico: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 8:11 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Los Alamos County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:11 PM

Commute Time Burden in Los Alamos County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Los Alamos County spend about 30 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 126 hours, about 5.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% less time on the road than the New Mexico average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 3.7 minutes.

Los Alamos County holds about 0.9% of New Mexico's population but accounts for roughly 0.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Los Alamos County would save about 50 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,560 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)
Los Alamos County	15.1 min	30.2 min	126 hrs/yr	$3,899	1,164
New Mexico	18.8 min	37.7 min	157 hrs/yr	$4,866	619
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.

Commute Time Map: New Mexico Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in New Mexico

De Baca County (7.9 min)
Quay County (8.0 min)
Union County (8.3 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in New Mexico

Torrance County (36.5 min)
Mora County (30.1 min)
Valencia County (30.1 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Los Alamos County

Click a county to open it Explore the map →

Average commute time

On average, it takes 15.1 minutes to get to work in Los Alamos County. That's 33% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 15.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Los Alamos County

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Los Alamos County: 5.4 times more than the New Mexico average (0.7% vs 0.1%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Los Alamos County: 8.3 times less than the New Mexico average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Commute Mode Trends in Los Alamos County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Los Alamos 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	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Other	Taxi
2009	88.3%	4.2%	4.8%	0.9%	1.0%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%
2010	87.7%	3.2%	5.7%	1.0%	1.5%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%
2011	88.2%	3.1%	4.8%	1.7%	1.4%	0.2%	0.7%	0.0%
2012	85.7%	3.7%	5.0%	2.2%	2.0%	0.2%	1.1%	0.0%
2013	85.2%	4.5%	3.2%	2.8%	2.9%	0.2%	1.2%	0.0%
2014	87.0%	4.3%	2.2%	3.1%	2.7%	0.2%	0.6%	0.0%
2015	84.9%	4.5%	2.5%	4.0%	2.6%	0.4%	1.2%	0.0%
2016	84.4%	3.6%	3.9%	3.3%	2.9%	0.5%	1.3%	0.0%
2017	86.4%	2.9%	3.9%	3.3%	2.5%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%
2018	86.6%	2.5%	3.6%	3.6%	2.5%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%
2019	85.2%	3.7%	3.6%	3.4%	2.6%	0.9%	0.6%	0.0%
2020	86.1%	5.0%	3.3%	2.4%	2.5%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	83.3%	9.7%	1.9%	2.0%	2.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	81.8%	11.8%	2.0%	1.7%	2.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	79.8%	14.2%	2.1%	1.7%	1.1%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	79.0%	15.6%	2.2%	1.2%	1.0%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 88.3% in 2009 to 79.0% in 2024, down 9.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 4 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Los Alamos County: its share of workers rose from 4.2% in 2009 to 15.6% in 2024, up 11.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 4.8% to 2.2% of workers (down 2.6 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2019 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 4.0% in 2015 and has since fallen back to 1.2%.

Commute Start Times in Los Alamos County

Rush-Hour RegularsThe 2nd-highest share of rush-hour departures among New Mexico's 33 counties: 65.8% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Los Alamos County?

The bars show when commuters in Los Alamos 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 New Mexico for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		1.5%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.3%
6:30-6:59 AM		12.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		18.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		17.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		17.4%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		3.6%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.8%
12:00-3:59 PM		4.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		0.5%

Los Alamos County New Mexico Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Los Alamos County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 18.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.5% across New Mexico. Early starts are less common than in New Mexico: 6.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in New Mexico: 65.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.5% there. About 1 in 9 commuters (11.7%) 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 Los Alamos 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 Los Alamos 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 Los Alamos County next to New Mexico 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	Los Alamos County	New Mexico	United States
2009	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:38 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:41 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:41 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:41 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:45 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:47 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:47 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:41 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:38 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:35 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Los Alamos County were on the road by 7:39 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:42 AM). New Mexico followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Los Alamos County now leave 1 minute 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 Los Alamos County has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Los Alamos County's commute time compare?

Metric	Los Alamos County	New Mexico	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.1 min	18.8 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	15.6%	12.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.2%	1.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.2%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Los Alamos County is 15.1 minutes, shorter than the 18.8 minutes in New Mexico.

1.2% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.6% in New Mexico. 2.2% commute by walking, higher than the 1.9% in New Mexico.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Los Alamos County, NM Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Los Alamos County, NM is the smallest of the 6 counties compared here, 19,409 residents against a local median of 153,584. The measure that sets Los Alamos County, NM apart most is one-way commute: 15.1 min, 29% below the local median of 21.1 min. That is the better end of the local range on this measure.

The counties themselves spread 9.5 min on one-way commute, so Los Alamos County, NM sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Los Alamos County, NM has the lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Los Alamos County, NM	19,409	15.1 min #1/6	15.6% #4/6	7:39 AM #3/6
Santa Fe County, NM	155,407	20.5 min	18.4%	7:52 AM
Sandoval County, NM	153,584	30.0 min	16.8%	7:19 AM
Rio Arriba County, NM	40,067	28.1 min	10.2%	7:20 AM
Bernalillo County, NM	672,163	20.9 min	14.9%	7:43 AM
Taos County, NM	34,542	21.1 min	19.7%	7:58 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Los Alamos County, New Mexico.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Los Alamos County, New Mexico?

Commuters here spend an estimated 126 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,899 at a typical national wage. That's 20% less than the typical New Mexico commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Los Alamos County, New Mexico?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Los Alamos County, New Mexico. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How do commute times compare across counties in New Mexico?

Among counties in New Mexico, the shortest average commutes are in De Baca County (7.9 min), Quay County (8.0 min), Union County (8.3 min). The longest are in Torrance County (36.5 min), Mora County (30.1 min), Valencia County (30.1 min).