EDITORIAL CAR TROUBLES ESCALATING TRANSPORTATION COSTS DRIVE CALIFORNIANS TO POOR HOUSE.

WITH Southern California residents paying an average of 18 percent of their annual income on transportation costs, our famed love affair with our cars is hopelessly on the rocks.

Unfortunately, there's no way out of this troubled relationship.

A generation of failure by government at all levels has left us stuck with the awful burden that getting around in greater Los Angeles has become.

We're stuck spending precious hours each day idling in traffic, and we're stuck spending the horrific average of $8,104 per household on car payments, repairs, gas and all the other related expenses.

That's the grim news from a new study jointly released by the Washington, D.C.-based Surface Transportation Policy Project and the Transportation and Land Use Collaborative of Southern California. In total, the researchers found, Southern California families spend more on cars than on entertainment, clothing, health care and education - combined.

But what other choice is there?

The long-term failure of government officials to craft coherent land-use policies has left housing in short supply and far removed from job centers.

For most middle-class Southern Californians, the long commute is an unavoidable fact of life.

And, of course, there are few public-transportation options in the region, so, for most of us, the only way to make the long commute is by car.

As the mileage piles up, so does the need for oil changes, repairs and gas refills. In Los Angeles, monstrous potholes and the overall poor condition of city streets send maintenance costs even higher.

Then, because the state has failed to expand infrastructure to match population growth, our freeways are jammed and traffic moves at a molasses pace, driving up our gas bills and choking our air with pollution.

The state, as a result, has to turn to tighter regulations on gasoline to minimize the effect of traffic on air quality. Consequently, Californians pay some of the highest gas prices in the country.

Meanwhile, Californians also pay some of the nation's highest auto-insurance rates, thanks to failed federal and state policies that allow millions of immigrants to drive our roads without driver's licenses or insurance.

Yet, even as government continues to fail California's drivers, that doesn't stop public officials from looking at drivers as an easy source of income. Adding to the cost for Southland commuters are high taxes on every part of the driving experience - sales taxes on the purchase of a car, steep taxes on gasoline and the nation's highest annual car tax, now set to triple.

Elected officials can't blame a lack of revenue for the problems besetting Southland drivers. Instead, the troubles flow directly from a lack of leadership, a lack of vision and a lack of willingness to deal head-on what's long been one of the region's most pressing problems.

There will be no fixing California's car troubles until Californians fix their government.