I think you're confusing rural areas and suburban areas. It's the suburban wastelands that are saturated with families of daily-driven automobiles and commuter

I think you're confusing rural areas and suburban areas. It's the suburban wastelands that are saturated with families of daily-driven automobiles and commuters. I live in a rural area, most of my neighbors only drive to a grocery store ~10 miles away once a week. The rest of the time is spent at home. Then on the weekends a bunch of city folks blast through disrupting everything on their way to/from Las Vegas and/or to hike in the national park. It's absolutely nuts, the small town becomes a microcosm of LA via weekend tourism, every weekend. The rural folks I know are mostly poor, they can't afford to be burning fossil fuels like it's going out of style. They live relatively frugal lives, they're not the problem.