Commuting in Sandoval County, New Mexico: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:06 PM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in Sandoval County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:06 PM
Commute Time Burden in Sandoval County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Sandoval County spend about 60 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 250 hours, about 10.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 59% more time on the road than the New Mexico average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 11.2 minutes.
Sandoval County holds about 7.3% of New Mexico's population but accounts for roughly 11.6% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Sandoval County would save about 100 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,104 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)
Sandoval County
30.0 min
60.1 min
250 hrs/yr
$7,760
1,839
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.
On average, it takes
30.0
minutes to get to work in
Sandoval County.
That's 34% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Among the 5 slowest counties in New Mexico
The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 16.8% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Sandoval County
Car:
79.5%
Worked at Home:
16.8%
Other:
1.6%
Walked:
1.0%
Public Transportation:
0.5%
Bicycle:
0.4%
Motorcycle:
0.2%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Sandoval County, versus 0.1% in New Mexico.
Commute Mode Trends in Sandoval County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Sandoval 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
Other
Walked
Public Transportation
Bicycle
Motorcycle
Taxi
2009
90.0%
5.6%
1.0%
1.4%
0.9%
0.3%
0.7%
0.0%
2010
89.8%
5.7%
1.0%
1.5%
1.0%
0.2%
0.8%
0.0%
2011
89.5%
5.8%
0.8%
1.5%
1.3%
0.3%
0.8%
0.0%
2012
89.5%
5.8%
0.9%
1.4%
1.3%
0.3%
0.7%
0.0%
2013
89.4%
5.9%
1.2%
1.4%
1.4%
0.2%
0.6%
0.0%
2014
90.0%
5.9%
1.0%
1.2%
1.3%
0.2%
0.4%
0.0%
2015
90.2%
5.7%
1.0%
1.4%
1.2%
0.2%
0.3%
0.0%
2016
90.3%
5.5%
1.1%
1.4%
1.2%
0.2%
0.3%
0.0%
2017
90.3%
5.7%
0.9%
1.5%
1.1%
0.1%
0.3%
0.0%
2018
91.6%
5.3%
0.7%
1.4%
0.8%
0.2%
0.1%
0.0%
2019
91.5%
5.2%
0.7%
1.5%
0.9%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
2020
88.7%
7.6%
1.1%
1.4%
0.8%
0.2%
0.1%
0.0%
2021
86.4%
10.1%
1.1%
1.4%
0.8%
0.2%
0.1%
0.0%
2022
83.9%
12.7%
1.3%
1.1%
0.7%
0.2%
0.1%
0.0%
2023
81.4%
15.0%
1.3%
1.2%
0.7%
0.2%
0.2%
0.0%
2024
79.5%
16.8%
1.6%
1.0%
0.5%
0.4%
0.2%
0.0%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2018 at 91.6%. Overall it fell from 90.0% in 2009 to 79.5% in 2024, down 10.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Sandoval County: its share of workers rose from 5.6% in 2009 to 16.8% in 2024, up 11.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Commute Start Times in Sandoval County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Sandoval County?
The bars show when commuters in Sandoval 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
12:00-4:59 AMSandoval County5.0%New Mexico4.6%
5.0%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMSandoval County4.2%New Mexico3.5%
4.2%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMSandoval County6.6%New Mexico5.1%
6.6%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMSandoval County11.4%New Mexico8.7%
11.4%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMSandoval County13.6%New Mexico10.1%
13.6%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMSandoval County14.0%New Mexico15.5%
14.0%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMSandoval County12.5%New Mexico14.8%
12.5%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMSandoval County9.4%New Mexico11.1%
9.4%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMSandoval County3.2%New Mexico4.5%
3.2%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMSandoval County4.8%New Mexico6.0%
4.8%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMSandoval County3.2%New Mexico3.1%
3.2%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMSandoval County1.0%New Mexico1.3%
1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMSandoval County5.7%New Mexico6.3%
5.7%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMSandoval County5.3%New Mexico5.5%
5.3%
Sandoval CountyNew MexicoSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Sandoval County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.5% across New Mexico. Early starts are more common than in New Mexico: 15.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in New Mexico: 49.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.5% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.1%) 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 Sandoval 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 Sandoval 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 Sandoval 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
Sandoval County
New Mexico
United States
2009
7:25 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:24 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:23 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:24 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:25 AM
7:36 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:23 AM
7:37 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:23 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:23 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:25 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:23 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:23 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:22 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:20 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:21 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:21 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:20 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Sandoval County were on the road by 7:20 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:25 AM). The shift is sharper than across New Mexico, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Sandoval County now leave 18 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 Sandoval County has moved 4 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Sandoval County in the whole series.
How does Sandoval County's commute time compare?
Metric
Sandoval County
New Mexico
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
30.0 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
06:30 AM – 06:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
16.8%
12.2%
15.0%
Walked
1.0%
1.9%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.5%
0.6%
3.2%
The average commute time in Sandoval County is 30.0 minutes, longer than the 18.8 minutes in New Mexico.
0.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in New Mexico. 1.0% commute by walking, lower than the 1.9% in New Mexico.
Sandoval County, NM Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Sandoval County, NM is the 3rd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 153,584 residents against a local median of 78,461. Where Sandoval County, NM breaks from the counties next to it is one-way commute, sitting 44% above the local median of 20.9 min at 30.0 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.
The counties themselves spread 15.0 min on one-way commute, so Sandoval County, NM sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Sandoval County, NM has the 5th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Sandoval County, New Mexico.
Is commuting expensive in Sandoval County, New Mexico?
Commuters here spend an estimated 250 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,760 at a typical national wage. That's 59% more than the typical New Mexico commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Sandoval County, New Mexico?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Sandoval County, New Mexico. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
How much money can remote workers save in Sandoval County, New Mexico?
About 16.8% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Sandoval County would save about 100 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,104 at the same national wage assumption used above.
Which counties in New Mexico have the fastest and slowest commutes?
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).