Smog, backed up traffic ways, and stress seem to be the main factor contributing to the decrease in car usage. Although these seem to be very negative factors, there are many advantages to limiting car use including helping our Planet Earth and less costly factors.

To begin, when we look at studies we find that when people use their cars immensely, there is a harmful effect in our atmosphere, also reffered to as The Greenhouse Effect. France has been a major component to this harmful gas, as explained by Robert Duffer in the passage

Paris bans driving due to smog

"Paris typically has more smog than other European capitals..." In addition, Duffer continues to provide evidence to this claim by further emphasizing and comparing "[Last] week Paris had 147 miocrograms of particulate matter (PM) per cubic meter compared with 114 in Brussels and 79.7 in London," By including this simple sentence, we are fully aware of just how much harm pollution has done to the environment due to car uage in Paris. Moreover, the smog in Paris was so intense that "Paris enforced a partial driving ban to clear the air of the global city." Although almost 4,000 drivers were fined, the smog had cleared enough by Monday for the ruling French party to rescind the ban for odd-numbered plates on Tuesday. This movement is also spreading to places such as Bogota, Colombia where they have a day free of cars with the exception of taxis and buses; for example, in the article

Car-free day is spinning into a big hit in Bogota by Andrew Selsky, businessman Carlos Arturo Plaza explains "It's a good opputunity to take away stress and lower air polution," Many ideas are being formed to show that people care about what their harmful ways have done and are looking to find solutions to minimize the pollution and undo what wrong has been done.

Buying cars over the years has become quite an expense to everyone and has become somewhat burden-like. By limiting and even canceling out the use of cars people have cut down expenses greatly. Public transportation is getting on board with this idea and trying to accomodate those who have made this decision by making public transit "free of charge from Friday to Monday," according to the BBC in the article

Paris bans driving due to smog . As also mentioned the importance of car is no longer such an immediate thought to people more recently.  Elisabeth Rosenthal solidifies this in the article

The End of Car Culture when she includes "recent studies suggest that Americans are buying fewer cars, driving less and getting fewer licenses as each year goes by." This clear and simple states that people are not considering their cars as such an extreme item and more considering it as a means of transportation only when absolutely necessary such as when "Bay Area Rapid Transit doesn't work." As well costs not only personally so much as federally are being affected dramatically. Elisabeth Rosenthal author of In German Suburb, Life Goes On Without Cars explains "In previous bills, 80 percent of appropriations have by law gone to highways and only 20 percent to other transport." By intorducing this idea, people are aware that the advantage is personal and is in the everyday common person's favor.

Not only are the advantages of limiting car usage subtle however they are also direct and can have immediate positive effects on people. By making sure people do not overdo the amount they utilize their cars, they become less stressed, have a healthier environment, and save money. This issue is worldwide however, the solution is becoming worldwide as well creating exceptional results and care from car drivers and people are really thinking outside of the box to make magic happen.