text: The switch is facilitated further not only by the inclination toward a better worldy environment but a less stressful social one as well.  In the city of Vauban in Germany, residents have " given up their cars"(1).  Here although car ownership is allowed, "70 percent of Vauban's families do not own cars and 57 percent sold a car to move [there]." (3).  Do the residents regret their decision?  According to Heidrun Walter, a media trainer and mother of two:  "When I had a car I was always tense, I am much happier this way"(3).  In Bogota, a business man, Carlos Arturo Plaza who participates in Bogota's movement to reduce car usage says that the absence of cars is an "...opportunity to take away stress and lower air pollution" (24).  These are two individuals on different continents with families and busy lives who find the lack of cars to be not a handicap but actually a source of stress relief.  In France, after the restrictions of car usage the streets also became less stressful for people who have to drive (like taxi drivers or public transporters) because of a "60 percent reduction in traffic congestion" (14).