Fountain Valley Commute Third-Easiest Among Medium-Sized OC Communities

If you're getting ready to head to work on this Monday morning, you can take at least a little comfort in that fact that, if you live in Fountain Valley, there's about a 24 percent chance it'll take you less than 15 minutes to get there.

That's the percentage of Fountain Valley residents whose commute takes them 14 minutes or less, according to a study just released by The Business Journals.

Out of 483 medium-size communities nationwide, Fountain Valley ranked 273rd in terms of its ease of commute for residents, which made it the third-easiest commute for a community of its size in Orange County. Tustin and Newport Beach were first and second, ranking 196th and 197th on the overall list. No city in California cracked the top 20, with No. 23 Redding coming in as the highest-ranked city in the state.

The study awarded points for every commuter who takes less than 30 minutes to get from home to his or her job, and it took away points for every commuter above that threshold. The raw data came from the five-year version of the U.S. Census Bureau 's 2009 American Community Survey. A community designated as medium-sized was one with a population of between 50,000 and 100,000.

The majority of Fountain Vally commuters cited in the study—about 42 percent—reported a commute time of 15 to 29 minutes. About 22 percent reported a commute time of 30 to 44 mintues, and another 13 percent said it takes them 45 minutes or more.