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Friday, Jan. 30, 2026

Fact Brief: Did San Benito County residents have the longest commuting time in California in 2023?

Jenny Mendolla Arbizu, BenitoLink
yes

According to data from 2023, San Benito County had the longest commute time in California with an average of 36.1 minutes. 

However, this study was done during the three-year construction project on Hwy 156 between Union Road and San Juan Bautista, beginning in August 2022 and ending in June of 2025 when traffic delays were common.

That construction project turned the freeway’s two lanes into four lanes. With its completion, San Benito County may no longer have the state’s longest commute time.

By comparison, Contra Costa County had the longest commute time in 2022.

In 2025, Bay Area newspapers determined that Brentwood, California (in Contra Costa County) had the longest commute time in the nation, at 46 minutes.

In an interview on May 1, 2025, Binu Abraham, the director of the San Benito Council of Governments (COG), noted San Benito County had the third longest commute time in California.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.

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