Sierra Blogging Post Archives

If you live in Vauban, a suburb of Freiburg, Germany, odds are you don't own a car. That's because Vauban is a decidedly car-free town.

Designed for efficiency, Vauban is an experimental upscale community where street parking, driveways and parking garages are forbidden and residents either walk, ride their bikes or take the tram to get around.

Cars aren't illegal in town, but they might as well be. The roads are made for pedestrians and cyclists only, the tram being the exception. 70% of Vauban residents do not own a car and 57% of them gave one up to move there. It's simply understood... you just don't drive in Vauban.


“When I had a car I was always tense. I’m much happier this way,” said Heidrun Walter, resident of Vauban, in the NY Times article.

The town relies on "smart planning" - a growing trend in Europe - to ensure residents can get around town with ease, sans automobile. Once reserved for cities, smart planning is now being utilized in suburbs, too. Smart planning eliminates parking spaces, and creates towns that are dense, compact and easily accessible by and to public transportation. Vauban is contained within one rectangular square mile with all shops and stores on a main street instead of in far-flung shopping malls or centers at the edge of town.

Vauban and communities like it are being designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 12% (and growing) of Europe's emissions come from passenger cars alone (up to 50% of U.S. emissions come from passenger cars).

A similar car-free community is being planned in the Oakland, CA area that will be accessible without a car and located near the Bay Area's Rapid Transit System or BART. While some like the idea, (100 families have already expressed interested in living in Quarry Village) most Americans are not yet receptive to the idea of car-free communities.

“People in the U.S. are incredibly suspicious of any idea where people are not going to own cars, or are going to own fewer,” said David Ceaser, co-founder of CarFree City USA, who said no car-free suburban project the size of Vauban has been successful in the United States.

What do you think about living in a car-free community? Would you be able to/want to give up your automobile?