Vauban, Germany, the motorless city. Vauban is an upscale community, yet they have one difference than any other, they have given up cars. When you visit this motorless city, you don't see driveways, garages or any other home accessory that invloves parking, or storing your car. When you think of a city like this, you think that there is no way a town can survive without automobile transportation, well, you thought wrong. Unlike most towns, Vauban has located all the necessary stores and shops on a main street, where it is easily found and just a walk away.

Vauban is also a happier place, as suggested by Heidrun Walter, mother of two and media trainer. "When I had a car I was always tense. I'm much happier this way." When she walks the street she sees young children playing and chatting and people riding their bicycles, but best of all, she doesn't hear that awful noise of a running motor.

Automobiles are a detriment to the ecosystem. "Automobiles are the linchpin of suburbs, where middle-class families from Chicago to Shanghai tend to make their homes. And that, experts say, is a huge impediment to current efforts to drastically reduce greenhouse gass emissions from tailpipes..." Did you know that passenger cars are responsible for 12% of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. And, up to 50% in some car-intensive areas in the United States.

Back to Vauban, the home of 5,500 residents within a rectangular square mile. This town may be the most advanced experiment in low-car suburban lifestyle. "All of our development since World War II has been centered on the car, and that will have to change," said David Goldberg, an official of Transportation for America. This group promotes new communities that are less dependent on cars.

In the United States, "car-reduced" communities are being promotedby thr Enviornmental Protection Agency, and legislators are beginning to act, if cautiously. "Many experts expect public transport serving suburbs to play a much larger role in a new 6-year federal transportation bill to be approved this year," Mr. Goldberg has said.