Driving - A Necessary Evil?

I am sure that every time a new baby is born in the USA, the car manufacturers must rejoice...another eventual driver, another customer. On our drive to Florida, Rob and I both commented – several times – that there was such an amazingly large number of vehicles on the road. At one point, I even asked, “Who is working?” because there were so many cars on the 4-lane highways that I did not think it was possible that anybody was doing anything else but driving. At another point in our trip, I commented that I was sure we had spent the last couple of days driving in traffic where we were never in a slew of vehicles of less than one thousand strong. Where were they all going?

Of course, because we were travelling between Christmas and New Year's Day, some of the traffic was holiday travel. Some of it was shopping mania. Another time I will write about America's fixation on the shopping mall. But as we drove along it seemed we were always in rush-hour traffic. The volume was staggering. And it didn't diminish when the weather got nasty. It is definitely NOT fun to be driving in stop-and-go traffic on a major thoroughfare in a downpour of rain! Why do people do it if they don't have to?

Even here in sunny Florida, in small-town Englewood, the traffic seems way out of proportion to the size of the community. It never seems to stop. It does diminish a bit on Saturday and Sunday. We are not that far from a main, 4-lane highway and the cars and trucks and tractor trailers just persist. And the motorcycles! No problem knowing that there are a few Harleys in Englewood.

What is it about driving? I know some people really like it. Why?