Driving During Rush Hour

I didn't think it could get hotter. Driving during rush hour which I had thought began at  4:30 and ended by 5:30 shows that I am out of the driving loop. I realize that rush hour is most if not all of the afternoon hours. And it is no solution in taking back roads to get around the bumper to bumper major routes. One almost goes manic with the traffic lights in these myriad metropolises---the lights as regular as telephone poles; and it must be some kind of requirement that they must turn red the moment one arrives. And there must be a requirement that they last long enough to write a paragraph in a journal and have nearly a novella by the time one's drive is completed. And as to the heat: one feels in traffic that one's accommodating degree by degree to the temperature of the ubiquitous exhaust that shimmers in the air; and even for the organically minded it is a very inorganic air that you are bound to breathe. And in conclusion, I must say only that I confess a concerted will to keep such days to the pathology of a pedestrian---at least during these peak hours. And perhaps never more to venture from my rather untrafficked town of Marblehead during the weekday and afternoon hours. Are there really a dozen cars per household as is sometimes reported?  I do think this is underestimating the case. I think it is more likely that each household now resembles a small used car dealership.