Starting with the end of World War II, cars have been a cultural hub all around the world, with businesses and even entire economies relying on the production and sale of cars and car products. However, after over sixty years of a car based global economy, the use of cars is beginning to slowly decline. With the decline of car usage, we see decreases in greenhouse gas pollution, a more relaxed living style, and the dawn of a new era of culture and economy around the globe.

Several major cities around the world have attempted to lower car-use through laws or even annual days devoted to reduced car-use. In Vauban, Germany, seventy percent of the population does not own a car, and fifty three percent of that population sold a car to move to Vauban. Vauban has condesed its suburban layout so that everything is within practical walking range for the most part. They have also discouraged car-use by making parking only available in two places, "Car ownership is allowed, but there are only two places to park-large garages at the edge of the development, where a car-owner buys a space, for $40,000, along with a home" (Rosenthal, paragraph 2). Vauban has reported drastic reductions in greenhouse gases. Passenger cars are responsible for twelve percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe, and up to fifty percent in the United States. The Environmental Protection Agency in the United States is promoting "car-reduced" communites in order to cut down greenhouse gas emissions, and legislators are acting on the issue. Experts claim that public transportation is beginning to play a larger role in suburbs, and a larger budget is now being given to public transportation instead of highways. Paris also has reduced driving to reduce smog, but they did it through laws. After suffering record-breaking pollution, Paris enforced a partial ban on driving. On Monday, even-numbered license plates could not drive, or they would be fined twenty two euros, or about thirty one dollars. On Tuesday, the same thing applied to odds. From this driving ban, congestion was lowered up to sixty percent in the French capital. Throughout multiple global cities, these reductions of car-use have had a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions, and more cities are beginning to join in.

Along with the benifit of reduced greenhouse gases, car-reduced societies also have a more relaxed living style. In Vauban Germany, citizens have claimed that they are enjoying a more relaxed life with much less stress. Heidrun Walter was quoted in Elisabeth Rosenthal's article "When I had a car I was always tense. I'm much happier this way" (Rosenthal, paragraph 3). Andrew Selsky's article on car-free days in Bogota, Colombia also states that people enjoy the relief of less stress when they don't use their cars. "'It's a good opportunity to take away stress and lower air pollution' said businessman Carlos Arturo Plaza as he rode a two-seat bicycle with his wife" (Selsky, paragraph 24). If a drop in car-use leads to a happier, healthier life style, this will most likely set off a cyclicle action of car-use reduction to relief of stress and back to car-use reduction. As more people realize this potential benifit of reducing car-use, more people will beginning to join the population of reduced car-use.

The vast empire of cars that began with the end of World War II has reached its peak and is beginning a steady decline. For nearly seventy years, cars and car products have been a cultural and economical stimulant in both developed and developing countries. From the Model-T to the Buggatti, cars have been percieved as the thing to have over radios, television, and other mass media. Now that they are becoming less used, culture will slowly begin to shift to a different source to hype about. The production of new models of cars and new types of cars will slow and eventually halt all together. As well as culture evolving to a new phase, economy will also undergo major changes. Economy all around the world has been stimulated by auto industries, and international trade has been influenced heavily by it. For example, foreign cars are driven in America more often than domestically-manufactured cars. Now that car-use is declining, the economy will suffer a major crash in stocks in the auto industry. Although this crash will harm the economy, the ever-changing population of Earth will quickly find some new innovation to obssess over and the market will quickly recover and improve on this new product. With a new culture and economy, the world will be in a new era, a new age of living.

With the decline of car usage, we see decreases in greenhouse gas pollution, a more relaxed living style, and a possibilty of a new era of culture and economy around the globe. As the problems with cars are found, people have and will continue to resolve the problem by reducing car-use. The Earth will become healthier with a nicer atmosphere, the population will lead happier lives, and culture itself will transform with the end of major car-use.