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Have you ever seen a smog cloud before? Or even been a city that has a really high level of it? It's typically caused by the vehicles, and how much that they're used in the area that you happened to be in. There are some places that have days where your not aloud to drive. There are some places that people don't even own cars, and places where people only go by bus, bike, car pooling, or train. But there is one thing we notice about all of these people, and the places that they live in when they have people consistently going by other means, and not using their car. It's been a problem that has been up in the air for the longest time, and people are starting to do something about it, and probably without even knowing it.

The city of Vauban, Germany is pretty normal. it consist of normal homes, normal people, and just normal everyday life. Except for two things. "Vauban's streets are completely "car-free"-except the main throughfare" (Parragraph 2, Source 1). Even if you owned a car, "there are only two places to park-large garages at the edge of teh development, where a car-owner buys a space, for fourty-thousand dollars, along with a home" (Parragraph 2, Source 1). The other crazy thing about this town is that Vauban is "home to five thousand-five hundred residents within a rectangular square mile

" (Parragraph 6, Source 1). Their town is free of the green house emissions that are caused by passanger cars. It's there way of smart planning, and other cities are starting to try to find ways to become cleaner, and better at being somehow like Vauban. People here say that it reduces the stress of driving, and traffic jams, and makes life simply easier by not driving. But imagine if you were banned from driving in a place where you were used to driving everyday.

Paris decided that "after days of near-record pollution, they would enforce a partial driving ban to clear the air of the global city" (Parragraph 10, Source 2). some 4,000 drivers were given a fine of thirty-one dollars, and there were twenty-seven cars impounded due to disobeying the ban. however, after 5 days of this ban going in to effect, "Congestion was down sixty percent in the capital of france" (Parragraph 14, Source 2). The people driving isn't really the problem, it's the fact that "France has a tax policy that favors diesel over gasoline" (Parragraph 16, Source 2) and they're saying that becuase it makes up such a higher percentage of vehicles in France compared to the rest of Western Europe that it's causing their smog levels to go up higher as well. Gradually the smog lifted off of the city of paris, and they were finally able to start letting certain amounts of cars back on the road without fines. There are some places that they have days that are car free?

In the Latin-American city of Bogota, they have a day that's car-free. "Millions of columbians hiked, biked, skated or took buses to work" (Parragraph 20, Source 3). They only face a small fine of twenty-five bucks if they decide to drive, but msot people don't have to worry if they don't have a bike or don't want to walk. Buses and taxis are still aloud on the roads. Even on the days where "gray clouds dumped occasional rain showers on Bogota, the rain hasn't stopped people from participating" Parragraph 22-23, Source 3). It's not just 5,500 people who don't do it, there are seven million people in the capital city who don't drive. It's been going on since the 1990s. The city has planned, and made efforts to have these days so that they can also take part in the reductin of the emiisions of green house gases. "The city has seen the construction of 118 miles of bicycle paths; and uneven, pitted sidewalks have been replaced by broad, smooth ones" (Parragraph 27-28, Source 3). Many places are trying to encorporate designs in to their cities to do these things, and to become better at traveling in means other than your personal vehicle. but even without our knowledge, people are starting to limit car usage without being told to, it's just inch by inch.

People are beggingin to drive less, and "America's love affair with its vehicles seems to be cooling" (Parragraph 32, Source 4. however in the past few years, americans have bught fewer cars, and "the number of miles driven in the United States peaked in 2005 and has dropped steadily therafter" (Parragraph 32, Source 4). reseachers are intrigued that car ownership per household had gone down,  three to four years before they noticed this. This pattern continuing, which they believe it will, would "have beneficial implications for carbon emissions and the enviroment" (Parragraph 34, Source 4). Other odd things have changed too. "There has been a large drop in the percentage of sixteen to thirty-nine year olds gettign a license. "A study last year found that driving by young people decreased twenty-three percent between 2001-2009" (Parragraph 41, Source 4). Plans are being put in action to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, and to put more ways into cities for people to travel alternatively to their normal going by car. The way that we're building cities, new suburbs, and things like that are beginning to incorporate other ideas from around the world to help not just everyone including yourself, but also the enviroment itself.

Meeting new people really isn't all that bad, and traveling by bus, train, transit, taxi, car pooling, bicycling, tram, trolley, walking, skating or even the interesting inventions we see by people all the time. There are many different ways that you can avoid having to drive your own car. It isn't a hassle. It's also a stress reliever, and helps you not get worried about how your going to avoid that five o'clock rush hour traffic jam that you have to sit and yell at people in. Not only does it probably save you money not having to buy gas every couple of days, it also helps you and the enviroment. Breathing cleaner air helps you to live longer than breathing air that has all that smog, and nastiness in the air. Your city is only a step in a new direction, and it's only a matter of how you want to do it. There's optoins, like you hear in the insruance commercials, that you can take and be just fine. There's a lot of advantages to the limiting of car uses, and the car-free days. It's just on you whether or not you want to take that route, make a change in your daily habit, and find that simple way to limit your car usage.

Score: 5