California’s commute times are getting worse. See which city has the longest trip to work

Commute times are rising in the vast majority of California cities, with workers statewide now averaging about a 30-minute trip each way, new census estimates show.

In the Sacramento region, commute times rose the most in the semi-rural community of Galt, which also had the region’s longest commute times at about 33 minutes one way. Average one-way commute times rose by about 100 seconds in the city of Sacramento, to 25.6 minutes.

Statewide, the average commute time has increased in about 265 of the top 300 California communities as ranked by the number of workers in those cities. The increase — which compares commute times measured between 2009-13 and then 2014-18 — was large enough to be statistically significant in about 195 of those cities.

The simplest explanation for the increase is a corresponding rise in traffic with the booming economy. As the unemployment rate sits near historic lows, more cars are on the road.

In the central San Joaquin Valley — Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus and Madera counties — commute times rose the fastest in the communities of Atwater and Riverbank. Residents of Los Banos had one of the longest one-way commutes in the state as many workers make the long trek to the Bay Area each day. The city of Fresno continues to boast relatively short average commute times.

Across the state, the worst commutes were in suburban Los Angeles and far-flung sections of the Bay Area. The average commute in the Riverside County community of Temescal Valley was about 51 minutes between 2014 and 2018, census estimates show.

Phillip Reese is The Sacramento Bee’s data specialist and he teaches at Sacramento State: 916-321-1137