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Since Henry Ford made the first Model T, people have been obsessed with the idea of transportation.  This idea has evolved into many things between then and now.  We now have entire sports dedicated to cars and motorcycles, cars powered by alternate energy sources, and many other novel concepts that have taken the world by storm.  However, there are many potential advantages of limiting your use of our precious automobiles.

One of the first reasons that you should reduce your usage of cars is found all around us, in the environment.  Some statistics of the current amount of damage we cause by using our cars like we do include that fact that passenger cars are responsibel for twelve percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and up to fifty percent in some areas of the United States.  Imagine if we could reduce those numbers?  David Goldberg, and official of Transportation for America (a fast-growing coalition of hundreds of groups in the United states), said "How much you drive is as important as whether you drive a hybrid."  There are some places that are taking this concept to heart.  One example of this is in Bogota, Columbia, where on certain days every year, a Day Without Cars in the captial city leaves only buses and taxis with permission to be on the roads.  Despite the rain on the third time the event took place, the turnout was still great.  There were even other cities, Cali and Valledupar, that took part in the fun.  Municipal authorities from other countries came to Bogota to see the event and were enthusiastic about what they saw.  The country of Colombia has made a concious effort to reduce their carbon footprint since the mid-1990s.  Bogota has seen the construction of 118 miles of bicicyle paths as well as parks and sports centers have also cropped up.  This also in turn resulted in an improved economy as new restaurants and upscale shopping distrcits have cropped up. The current President of the United States, Barack Obama, has also recently unveiled ambitious goals to curb the US's greenhouse gas emmisions.  Wouldn't it be great if we could all help the environment out by reducing our usage of cars?

How great would it be, if at the same time as leanding the earth a helping hand, you were able to improve your own happiness?  In Vauban, Germany and several other places globally, this has already begun to take effect.  The people of this city are part of the "Smart Planning" movement.  This experimental community on the outskirts of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders, is taking reducing autombile usage to a whole new level.  Seventy percent of Vauban's families simply do not own a car.  Heidrun Walter, a media trainer and a mother of two living in Vauban, said "When I had a car, I was always tense.  I'm much happier this way," as she walked the verdant streetes where the swish of bicycles and the chatter of wandering people drown out an occasional distant motor.  The "Smart Planning" movement isn't just restricted to this place though.  It is merely an example of a growing trend in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere to separate suburban life from auto use.  In Bogota, businessman Carlos Arturo Plaza said as he rode a two-seat bicycle with his wife, "It's a good opportunity to take away stress and lower air pollution," on a Day Without Cars.  Some may still say though, "How if by giving up my car, will I be happier?  I will have to find some other transportation mean and potentially have to wake up much earlier than I already to get everywhere.  That seems more stressful to me."  However, due to the recession in the US, many people are having to do adapt this type of lifestyle out of necessity.  Many can't afford new vechiles but still must get to work somehow.  Even after the recession ends, many sociologists believe that many will not return their previous way of life.

Finally, there are already many plans in place to reduce automobile usage.  At the

Mobile World Congress in 2012 in Barcelona, Spain, Bill Ford, executive chairman of the Ford Motor Company, laid out a business plan that shows how impractical or undesireable it will be for many to own a vehicle.  He also proposed partnering with the telecommunications industry to create ciries in which "pedestrian, bicycle, private cars, commercial and public transportation traffic are woven into a connected network to save time, conserve resources, lower emissions, and improve safety."  The Environment Protection Agency as well as legislators are promoting the reduced use of personal vehicles by working to induct a new six-year federal transportation bill, rather than previous ones that have devoted about eighty percent of the appropriations have gone to highway improvements and the remaining twenty percent to other transport.

To wrap everything up, there are many reasons that everyone should try to reduce automobile use.  For one, it will help the environment, it will increase general happiness, and finally, that there are plans that are already in place to make it more feasable for people to adopt this new lifestyle.  Whether we will see a drastic change or not, we will not know until we try.  But that all starts, with you.

Score: 5