Santa Fe County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Santa Fe 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, 8:30 PM

How much time do drivers in Santa Fe County spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:30 PM

Commute Time Burden in Santa Fe County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Santa Fe County spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 171 hours, about 7.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 9% more time on the road than the New Mexico average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 1.7 minutes.

Santa Fe County holds about 7.3% of New Mexico's population but accounts for roughly 8.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Santa Fe County would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,120 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)
Santa Fe County	20.5 min	41.0 min	171 hrs/yr	$5,299	1,012
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

Santa Fe County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 20.5 minutes to get to work in Santa Fe County. That's 8% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 78% of counties in New Mexico

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 18.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Santa Fe County

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Santa Fe County: 4.8 times less than the New Mexico average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Commute Mode Trends in Santa Fe County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Santa Fe 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	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	84.5%	9.2%	2.7%	1.3%	1.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	84.2%	9.8%	2.6%	1.4%	1.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	83.6%	9.7%	2.6%	1.7%	1.2%	0.9%	0.0%	0.3%
2012	85.2%	8.7%	2.6%	1.4%	1.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.3%
2013	85.5%	8.5%	2.4%	1.2%	1.1%	0.9%	0.0%	0.3%
2014	85.5%	8.3%	2.5%	1.2%	1.1%	1.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2015	86.1%	8.1%	2.3%	1.1%	1.1%	1.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2016	86.7%	8.0%	2.2%	0.8%	1.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	86.9%	7.9%	2.3%	0.6%	1.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	87.3%	8.2%	2.0%	0.5%	1.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	87.4%	8.4%	2.0%	0.4%	1.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	86.0%	10.1%	1.8%	0.5%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	83.8%	12.3%	1.9%	0.6%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	80.2%	15.0%	2.2%	1.0%	0.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	78.3%	17.0%	2.1%	1.0%	0.9%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	76.5%	18.4%	2.3%	1.3%	0.8%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2019 at 87.4%. Overall it fell from 84.5% in 2009 to 76.5% in 2024, down 8.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Santa Fe County: its share of workers rose from 9.2% in 2009 to 18.4% in 2024, up 9.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.3% to 0.8% of workers (down 0.5 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Santa Fe County

Night OwlThe 2nd-latest start among New Mexico's 33 counties: half of commuters are still at home at 7:52 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Santa Fe County?

The bars show when commuters in Santa Fe 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		2.5%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.2%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.3%
6:30-6:59 AM		6.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		20.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		14.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.1%
9:00-9:59 AM		9.1%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Santa Fe County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 20.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across New Mexico. Early starts are less common than in New Mexico: 6.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in New Mexico: 55.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.2%) 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 Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe 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	Santa Fe County	New Mexico	United States
2009	7:48 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:46 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:46 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:46 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:46 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:47 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:48 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:50 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:49 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:51 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:50 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:52 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:51 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:53 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:51 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:52 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Santa Fe County were on the road by 7:52 AM, 4 minutes later than in 2009 (7:48 AM). That goes against the trend across New Mexico, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Santa Fe County now leave 14 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 Santa Fe County has moved 2 minutes later.

How does Santa Fe County's commute time compare?

Metric	Santa Fe County	New Mexico	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.5 min	18.8 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	18.4%	12.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.3%	1.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.8%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Santa Fe County is 20.5 minutes, longer than the 18.8 minutes in New Mexico.

0.8% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.6% in New Mexico. 2.3% commute by walking, higher than the 1.9% in New Mexico.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Santa Fe County, NM Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Santa Fe County, NM is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 155,407 residents against a local median of 34,542. The measure that sets Santa Fe County, NM apart most is work from home: 18.4%, 18% above the local median of 15.6%.

The counties themselves spread 11.0% on work from home, so Santa Fe County, NM sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Santa Fe County, NM has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Santa Fe County, NM	155,407	20.5 min #2/6	18.4% #2/6	7:52 AM #5/6
Los Alamos County, NM	19,409	15.1 min	15.6%	7:39 AM
Bernalillo County, NM	672,163	20.9 min	14.9%	7:43 AM
Torrance County, NM	15,478	36.5 min	8.6%	7:17 AM
Sandoval County, NM	153,584	30.0 min	16.8%	7:19 AM
Taos County, NM	34,542	21.1 min	19.7%	7:58 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Santa Fe County, New Mexico.

Is commuting expensive in Santa Fe County, New Mexico?

Commuters here spend an estimated 171 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,299 at a typical national wage. That's 9% more than the typical New Mexico commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Santa Fe County, New Mexico?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Santa Fe County, New Mexico. 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.

Is Santa Fe County, New Mexico a good location for remote and hybrid workers?

About 18.4% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Santa Fe County would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,120 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).