Traffic Predict
Traffic Estimator: How Long Will Your Drive Take?
This free traffic estimator shows how long a drive usually takes for any day and departure time, and when to leave to arrive on time. Click where you start and where you are going on the map (or pick them from the lists), then the day and when you'll leave, or switch to Arrive by. Estimates come from typical freeway traffic at that exact time, measured by road sensors.
Click where you start on the map, then where you are going.
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How the estimate works
Road sensors along the freeways record how fast traffic moves every few minutes, and we keep a running average for every 15 minutes of every day of the week. To estimate a trip, we follow the route stretch by stretch and use the typical speed for the moment you would reach each stretch, so leaving at 7:30 meets the traffic that is usually downtown at 7:55, not at 7:30. Streets have no sensors yet, so their time is estimated from how congested the freeways around each end of the trip are at that moment.
It is a traffic time estimator for normal days: crashes, closures, storms and holidays can make a trip slower. For what is happening right now, open the live traffic map, which also forecasts the next four hours.
Example traffic estimates
How long these drives usually take on a Tuesday, leaving at the quickest and the slowest time between 5 am and 9 pm:
| Trip | Quickest | Slowest time | Extra |
|---|---|---|---|
| Irvine to Los Angeles | 37 min (9 pm) | 58 min (4:30 pm) | +57% |
| West Covina to Santa Monica | 31 min (5 am) | 1 h 6 min (7:30 am) | +117% |
| Riverside to Irvine | 37 min (9 pm) | 1 h 9 min (7 am) | +84% |
| Escondido to San Diego | 30 min (5 am) | 44 min (8 am) | +48% |
| Oakland to San Francisco | 17 min (5 am) | 31 min (7:30 am) | +85% |
| San Jose to San Francisco | 42 min (5 am) | 1 h 9 min (8 am) | +63% |
| Roseville to Sacramento | 21 min (5:30 am) | 36 min (8 am) | +72% |
| Midtown Manhattan to Staten Island | 49 min (5 am) | 1 h 43 min (4:30 pm) | +112% |
Questions
What is a traffic estimator?
A traffic estimator predicts how long a drive will take at a particular day and time, from how traffic usually moves then. This one uses the speeds that road sensors measured on the same freeways at the same time of the week, so it knows that 7:30 am on a Tuesday is slower than 7:30 am on a Sunday.
How do I estimate traffic at a certain time?
Pick where you are starting, where you are going, the day and the time you plan to leave. The estimator shows how long the drive usually takes then, when you would arrive, and whether leaving a little earlier or later would be faster.
What time should I leave to arrive by 9 am?
Choose Arrive by and 9 am. The estimator finds the latest departure that usually gets you there on time, taking into account that leaving later often means more traffic, and suggests leaving a little earlier on a bad day.
Is this a traffic calculator by time of day?
Yes. The bar chart under each estimate shows the drive time for every departure from 4 am to 10 pm, so you can see at a glance how rush hour changes the trip. Tap a bar to pick that time.
How accurate is the drive time estimate?
On a normal day most trips land within a few minutes of the estimate, because it comes from what the same freeways actually did at the same time on the same weekday. Crashes, weather, events and holidays are not included.
Which trips are covered?
Trips between 1775 pairs of cities in Southern California, San Diego County, the Bay Area, the Sacramento area and New York City, with more regions added as we get their road-sensor data. For anywhere else, the live traffic map shows freeway speeds and typical traffic by hour.
Popular trips
West Covina to Santa Monica · Santa Clarita to Los Angeles · Irvine to Los Angeles · Riverside to Irvine · LAX to San Diego · LAX to Santa Barbara · Los Angeles to Palm Springs · Los Angeles to Bakersfield · Los Angeles to San Diego · Escondido to San Diego · Oakland to San Francisco · San Jose to San Francisco · Fremont to Palo Alto · Roseville to Sacramento · all trips