text: The people of Vauban, Germany have given up their cars altogether. In the outskirts near the French and Swiss border driveways, home garages and street parking are not allowed. You are still allowed to own a car but if you do choose to own one, you'll have to choose where you want to park it. There aren't many options, you can buy a space for $40,000 in one of the garages on the edge of the development. Media trainer Heidrun Walter said "When I had a car I was always tense. I'm much happier this way". About seventy percent of families in Vauban, Germany do not own a car and aout fifty-seven percent sold their car so they could come live in Vauban. Much like in Germany to preserve resources and maintain pollution to a minimum in Paris, a partial driving band was placed due to over pollution. The band stated that only some people could drive on certain days. For example if your license plate was an even number than you could only drive on certain chosen days and vise versa with odd numbers. If you failed to follow this rule then you would be fined a $31 or a 22-euro fine. This rule caused around 4,000 drivers to be fined and around 27 people to have their cars impounded. In the capital of France congestion in the air went down about 60 percent after intense smog for about 5 days. Also because diesel is prefered over gasoline in France diesel fuel was blamed. In western Europe around 53.3 percent of diesel engines as compared to 67 percent in France.