Two-Car Garage?

Traffic and pollution are a problem as states like California grapple to try and figure out how to solve the problem of too many cars on the road.

In general, most families now have more than one car sitting in their garage. Gone are the days where one parent was the worker who used the car, and the other was the stay-at-home-parent who had no use for the car. Today, both parents need their own cars and each kid needs his or her own car as well.

It seems ridiculous to say this in light of the fact that there is so much widespread poverty and an uneven distribution of wealth on a global scale. However, the reality is that we are buying more and making more, and that has translated into more things such as cars.

Even for families who can't afford very much, the goal is generally, to at the least, make rent, pay for food and get a car. We, for the most part, are a commuter society. No one really walks in California. True, there are some sections of the state, where people tend to walk as there are also states where people walk more than drive.

Generally speaking however there are more people who work farther away from home and need to get to destinations that are farther from where they live today. This is another reason why there are more cars on the road.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 21 million households have more than two cars (from a 2005 survey). Two million families have five or more cars.

The survey results also showed that 25 percent of families who have their own home have two or more cars.

Aside from a greater need for more cars within individual families, another explanation for these numbers is affluence. People tend to put more stock into things like cars. Human nature has always involved a little bit of flaunting when it comes to showing off what we have. It's just that today, the things we value worthy of showing off, are obviously things like cars or high-priced electronics.

Does every kid in a family who turns driving age, need their own car? No, but apparently, more parents want to buy their kids cars when they are in high school because they don't want their kids to be without one. A true necessity for a car isn't really what fuels the need for families to have more than two or three cars in their family - it is really the competition among what other people have and how close or how much farther you can get from what they have.

Unfortunately, none of this does any good for the environment or the state of the roads today. Caltrans estimates that there will be a 20 percent increase of cars in California over the next decade. That means five million more vehicles will be driven by people on the road.

Eventually the problem will just become exacerbated and then desperate. And then finally at that point, more people will look into public transportation. Obviously, we haven't gotten to that point yet.