Yes, folks, there’s lots of … folks

Hi, Mahatma. Several of us old biddies were discussing how stressful it is to drive these days. Where is all this traffic coming from? Do you think the jobless folks are out passing time by cruising the streets? Or does it just seem like there’s more people because we’re all waiting in line at construction areas? Of course school traffic adds to the mess. What’s your opinion? — Not Far Enough from the Madding Crowd

Dear Maddie:

Our opinion is similar. School’s back. And anyone who crosses the Arkansas River on the rebuilding Interstates 30 and 430 bridges is in danger of becoming, if not maddened, nuttier than a peach orchard boar.

But there’s more. As in population and in drivers.

The U.S. Census Bureau tells us that the population of Arkansas in 2010 was 2,915,918. In 2020, the population grew to 3,011,524. That’s a 3.5% increase.

Right at two-thirds of these fine folk were of an age to get a driver’s license, and thus clog up our highways.

Now let’s look at population in the four counties of Troop A of the Arkansas State Police. Those counties are Pulaski, Saline, Faulkner and Lonoke.

Pulaski County’s population grew about 2% and now has right at 392,000 people. Saline County grew about 16% and now has right at 125,000. Faulkner Country grew about 12% and now has right at 128,000. Lonoke County grew about 6% and now has right at 73,000.

That’s about 718,000 Arkansans. Or 23.5% of the state’s population crammed into four of its 75 counties. Not exactly Hong Kong, but getting more crowded every decade.

More people means more drivers. How many more?

We turned to the Department of Finance and Administration for the answer, which was partial but still informative.

The department reports a state total of 2,067,242 licensed drivers in 2011. There are now 2,314,011 licensed drivers. The agency kindly took off its shoes and did the math — 246,769 more drivers over 10 years. We did our own math — save us, O Lord — and came up with an increase of 11.9%.

Think of it this way: There are roughly 12% more drivers in Arkansas now than in 2011, which causes some of us to shout, “Get out of the way, dadgum it!”

The agency doesn’t have data on the number of drivers in our four Central Arkansas counties from 10 years ago. But it can tell us there are currently 289,296 in Pulaski County, 97,526 in Saline County, 92,534 in Faulkner County and 57,773 in Lonoke County. Ergo, there are more than 537,000 licensed drivers in the four counties.

One more number. DF&A reports about 4.1 million registered vehicles.

To which we say: Get out of the way, dad blame it!