Today, we depend on cars for transportation. We never consider walking or taking a bus until we realize it's our only option. As teenagers we use cars as a gateway to independence and freedom. Little do we know that there are many advantages to the limiting of car usage. Advantages to these limitations are it's better for the environmemnt, it provides a safer city, and it helps financially.

Creating a better environment starts with the decisions we make. When we decide to take our cars for a 2 mile trip, that could be walked, we are polluting the air in our city. For example, source 2 explains that the air in Paris became highly polluted due to the overuse of automobiles. "Paris enforced a partial driving ban to clear the air of the global city". One day motorists with even-numbered plates would leave their cars home and the following day people with odd-numbered plates would do the same. This decreased the amount of congestion by sixty percent within five days. Source 1 states that cars are responsible for twelve percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and up to fifty percent in the United States. Source 3 states that in Bogota, Colombia, after their Day Without Cars, parks and sports centers flourished throughout the city and uneven sidewalks were repaved to make them more smooth and broad. The avoidance of car usage can improve our environment dramatically.

Safety is a very important factor in our lives. Often times our safety is put at risk when we are in a car and we don't realize it. Without the use of cars, we wouldn't have to worry about car accidents, traffic jams, etc.