In the past six years, the population of O'ahu has increased by nearly 34,000 people, and every one of them has a car and is out running errands on Saturday morning.

Kalaniana'ole town-bound gets gridlocked from 'Aina Haina all the way to Downtown, sometimes all the way to Kalihi. That means a lot of time sitting in your car on Saturday morning listening to Perry and Price. Too much time.

From Wahiawa side, H-2 gets gummed up near Costco and is often slow going until Pearl City. Coming into town, there's that awful bottleneck near the Dillingham overpass.

The easy zip over the Pali or the Likelike isn't easy either. It's heavy without a mishap; when there is an accident or incident, drivers are caught on the road with no turnarounds or detours.

Just a few years ago, weekend traffic wasn't like this. It was heavy during the Christmas shopping season and on those typical Hawai'i-style weekends where five huge public events were scheduled on the same Saturday. Now, every weekend is a shopping weekend. Every weekend brings an embattled trek on congested roads.

According to data from the U.S. Census, in 2000 the population in Honolulu was 876,156. It jumped to 909,863 in 2006. The population of this 600-square-mile island has risen by nearly 74,000 people since 1990. That's a huge increase, and perhaps nowhere is it more obvious than in weekend traffic. True, not everyone has a car, but it sure seems like everyone is out and about on Saturday. Sunday, too.

The little kids have lessons on Saturday, the older kids have games or meets or tournaments, lots of people hold on until Saturday to get to doctor appointments, and this time of the year, everybody is having a craft fair on Saturday mornings.

Sitting in traffic on a workday is bad enough, but it's easier to take than spending your day off behind the wheel listening to the same commuter music mix. Who would ever imagine that you could get sick of all 1,000 songs on your iPod?

All the lucky secret parking spots at the malls have been discovered. The "guarantee" places are guaranteed to be full, regardless of how far the walk is to Longs. Cars are generally bigger, parking spaces are generally smaller. Getting back home with groceries, a filled prescription and only a few door dings as battle scars is a feat.

Perhaps we will remember 2007 as the good old days, when we only sat in traffic for 45 minutes driving to the store on Saturday morning. The Census Bureau projects 109,000 more people will be living in Hawai'i by 2015. Get your errands done now.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.