However, the question remains. How many is too many? Nowadays you can find one on almost every street. As said by Caleb Pavao a Freshman, “They are definitely a waste of space.” He is a freshman, but he also claims his family washes their car around seven times a year. Another student, Sophmore Jadyn Peterman shared, “Either is fine to me, but washing it myself is more effective.” They prefer washing the car themselves meaning they will not even use a drive-thru car wash.  

With so many available, there are bound to be many not being used. These, despite being small, shrink the area for all of the neighborhoods. With so many new renovations to a city or town, twenty-car washes are just a waste of space. They take the space of something that could be a home or greenery. Something much more important. Studies show that 34% of Americans don’t even wash their car monthly. 

Car washes claim to be good for the environment. However, the statistics say otherwise. Roughly 65-80 gallons are used to wash a single car, while a resourceful person could use less than 40. To put this in perspective the average shower uses 20 gallons. Since we live in a world where most of the water is combined with salt. This makes it undrinkable, so should we be using our precious water supply washing thousands of cars a day at the local car wash? 

Senior Lily Shelton washes her car 6 times a year and agrees with the above students writing, “I think we have an overwhelming amount, and there’s absolutely no way all of them are getting used and making significant profits.” Around 50% of the survey said they prefer to wash their car by themselves. The other 50% said they prefer drive-thru but that there are too many. 

There are twenty-nine in a 5-mile radius around Bob Jones and many more just a bit out of range. Three are in the Publix area and most of the others are along Highway 72. Although many of these employ Bob Jones students, many are just there, mostly taking up space. Just scrolling down a list of car washing in Madison alone takes a long time.

Ultimately, the sheer amount of car washes is an over-abundance. They are not needed in the number that we have.