When one car won't do and neither will two

BY STEVE CHAMBERS AND ROBERT GEBEL
Star Ledger (New Jersey)
September 27, 2005

Along the winding roads and cul-de-sacs of suburban New Jersey, very little is within walking distance.

So as families grow and age, they tend to add a car.

Or two.

Or three.

In recent years, the number of households in New Jersey with three cars or more has skyrocketed, growing faster than all but a handful of other states, according to recently released U.S. Census figures. Those with at least five cars also jumped appreciably.

The effects can be seen in numerous ways, from three-car garages to traffic jams. Experts said the trend can be traced to the state's sprawling development patterns and affluence.

"The fate of the modern parent is to spend a great deal of their life as a chauffeur," said David Goldberg, a spokesman for Smart Growth America, an anti-sprawl group based in Washington, D.C. "There is no greater liberation than when their first kid turns 16 and there is another person in the house who can help ferry others around."

Some aren't waiting that long.

Kathryn and Andrew Timpson of South Orange added a third car last year even though their oldest child is still in grammar school. The Honda Civic is for their 19-year-old au pair.

While Andrew Timpson, a hedge-fund analyst, takes the train to work, he and his wife have an SUV and a pickup truck for the occasional weekend chore. A third car seemed to make sense, however, after the nanny arrived.

"It's difficult to park a pickup truck in the middle of Maplewood," Kathryn Timpson said. "So the third car was really an appreciation of a teenager's freedom and the knowledge that she would need it to help me pick up the children. It's a recognition that she needs to be able to get around in a nonwalking society."

Once Manhattanites without wheels, the Timpsons became motorists when they moved to Brooklyn, and they upgraded to the sport utility vehicle as their two children, Montana, 8, and Hunter, 4, got older.

"Frankly, we feel a little embarrassed about having three cars, but we do feel we are responsible about it environmentally," Kathryn said. "My husband uses the train, and we never use the truck."

By adding their third car, the Timpson household became one of 578,723 in New Jersey -- out of the state's 3.1 million -- with at least three vehicles in 2004, according to a wide-ranging Census survey released last month. That's up almost 20 percent from four years earlier.

Multicar households are most prevalent in Western states. Wyoming leads the nation with nearly one in three households keeping three or more vehicles. Next on the list: Idaho, North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota.

But suburban states are catching up. Connecticut, Virginia and New Jersey all rank among the five fastest-growing states when it comes to households owning three or more cars.

Katie Beversluis, a community college student in Morris, is part of one such family. The driveway and two-car garage on the quiet cul-de- sac in East Hanover holds a pickup truck for her younger brother, a college student at Rutgers, and a car and a Jeep for her parents. Then there's her father's Mercedes- Benz, used mostly for weekend golf outings.

"We do like our cars," said her mother, Kathy, as she traced the family mobility tree.

It started with a single Volkswagen convertible, later joined by a Volkswagen Rabbit diesel. Then, as the three children came along, the family moved to station wagons, a van and, eventually, the current configuration: a "workhorse" Jeep her husband uses for work; her BMW; Katie's 1991 Mazda; her brother Billy's truck, and the Mercedes -- a 25th wedding anniversary present to themselves.

Lawrence Frank, a professor of community and regional planning at the University of British Columbia, said the increase in multicar households is driven by a fascination with mobility and freedom.

"It's about status, and they're fun," he said. "It can be a hobby for a lot of people, but it's also a hobby with expenses that car owners aren't necessarily paying."

Frank, an author of books like "Health and Community Design," is a member of a growing movement voicing misgivings about America's "auto-dependent" society. He notes consequences that range from reliance on foreign oil to soaring highway costs and rising obesity rates.

"There are much better ways to move people with less energy, so you don't need two tons of metal around you to get a loaf of bread," said Frank, who lives in Vancouver in a one-car household.

Others say the suburbs demand more flexible transportation.

"People who have the money, their kid will have a car," said Peter Scherr, general sales manager at Globe Mercedes-Benz in Fairfield. "The days of sharing a car are over. It's almost a necessity."