People drive more because their 3 kids get chauffeured to 3 different schools across town, then 2 of the kids play indoor soccer 4 times a week across town, the other kid goes to dance 4 times a week, dad goes to crossfit 4 times a week across town, and mom goes to her mom's house 5 times a week to make sure she's ok, and then to yoga 3x a week. Then the family get some kind of reno done on their house every year which means more trips for construction crews, they get their lawn maintained weekly all spring/summer, and drive out to their cottage every weekend almost all year round. Dog gets driven to dog park 5x a week.

You get the picture. I bet this is 10x the number of car trips of 25 years ago. No wonder we have increasing gridlock and smog. 

Simplifying our lives means reducing the amount of buzzing around like headless chickens all week.