Many people in the world today think that cars and driving everywhere is a necessity; however, many people feel that owning a car is "impractical (and) undesirabe." (paragraph 43) There are many advantages to having cars, but there are also many more advantages to not using cars wherever people go. Some advatages include conserving resources, making people have a little more money in their pocket and it also improves safety in many suburban cities.

In the world today, a major problem that still exsists is greenhouse gases. Cars emit a lot of gas that isn't good for the enviroment. In the first source, it says that people living in cities "is a huge impediment to current efforts to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from tailpipes... passanger cars are responsible for 12 percent...in Europe...and up to 50 percent... in the United States."(paragraph 5) Exports mean to say that it is better for people to live in cities so they don't have to drive everywhere. This means that the more people that live in cities, the less gas goes into the air. In Paris, the city issued a ban for driving to try and reduce the smog. The second source says that "congestion was down to 60 percent in the capital of France, after five-days of intensifying smog." (paragraph 14) Only after five days of the no driving ban, more than half of the smog was gone in Paris. It also says that the amount of smog was almost as polluted at the city of Beijing, China, which is the most polluted city in the world. Bogota also did the same thing. They have an event called "A Day Without Cars." Participant Carlos Arturo Plaza says it is a good way "to take away stress and lower air pollution."(paragraph 24) They also got other cities, and even other countries, to follow suit and join the event. America faces the same problem as Paris; too many greenhouse gases are being put into the atmosphere. President Obama has a goal that he wasnts to achieve and  that is to try and make the enviroment healthy. The last article says that driving less "will have beneficial implications for carbon emissions and the enviroment, since transportation is the second largest source of America's emissions, just behind power plants."(paragraph 34) This implies that the amount of gases let into the air will be reduced. If peolpe didn't drive as much from place to place, the world would be a happier, healthier place.

Apart from the fact that cars give of gas, not driving everwhere also means people save more money. In Vauban, Germany, nobody has any cars, they walk or bike to wherever they need to go. "Car ownership is allowed, but there are only two places to park-large garages at the egde of the development, where a car-owner buys a space, for $40,000, along with a home."(paragraph 2) People would be more inclined to not getting a car rather than spend an extra 40 grand on top of getting a house for a parking space. Also, in Paris, a fine was issued for people who drove their cars during the car ban. The second article says "even-number license plastes were ordered to leave their cars at home or suffer a 22-euro fine.."(paragraph 11) If people didn't drive their cars around when they weren't supposed to, they would still have the 22 euros they lost. The same type of fine was issued in Bogota, Columbia. If people drove their cars on "A Day Without Cars", then they would have to face a $25 fine. However, in the United States, "recent studies suggest that Americans are buying fewer cars, driving less and getting fewer licenses as each year goes by."(paragraph 29) Without having to pay for a car or gas money, Americans are saving way more money they had been when they first got a car. Wit people not having to worry about payments or gas prices, they have more money in their wallet.

Not only does not driving save money and reduce gas, it also improves cities and people's lives. Heidrun Walter, a German media trainer, says that "when (she) had a car, (she) was always tense. (She's) much happier this way." (paragraph 3) She likes not having to drive everywhere, it makes her feel more calm and less tense. It's not only changing peoples lives, but it's changing the cities. Cities are attempting "to make suburbs more compact and more accessible to public transportation, with eless space for parking."(paragraph 6) Cities are changing their apperance in order to intice people into driving less and walking or biking more. They intend to make the stores closer together rather than having to drive across the highway to get to the next store. Also in Bogota, there has been a "cunstruction of 118 miles of bicycle paths" and "parks and sports centers...have bloomed throughout the city."(paragraphs 27&28) With more people walking, the city wants to make the outside apperance different and more appealing than what it looked like before people just used cars. Not driving is not only good for personal well being, but for the a city's well being.

There are many advantages to driving cars, such as saving time and getting to places faster but, not driving cars is way better in the long run because of a better enviroment, saving money and better cities and personal health.