Car free in Vauban, Germany

carfree can be just wonderful if you live in the right location.  My brother in Germany for instance does not have a car. He can ride a bike to work and about town, and if he needs to go farther he rents a car. It is still cheaper than keeping a car year round.  when I grew up  there were two cars in my mountain village.  The priest had one and the midwife.  at that time there was still quite an active community economy too.  The postal service  ran a bus route twice a day, morning and afternoon for those folks who had to go to town, either to work or to buy a pair of shoes, go to the dentist or the like.  we functioned very well that way for a long time.  I can think of several advantages of that time.  My daughter lives in Berlin and she rides a bike all over the place.  One problem with bikes is that they are easily stolen.  However, the apartment complexes in big cities all have parking facilities for bikes. 
If I compare the two countries, this one here just is not laid out for bikes, at least that part of the country where I am living.  Several reasons why I would not want to ride a bike out here, for one, the road and other drivers, and the dogs. More dogs than you can shake a stick at.

Yes, you are spot on about the location. Many urban areas in the US aren' t bicycle or pedestrian friendly & Tulsa, Oklahoma is one of them. They are working to improve this problem, but have a looong way to go. So far this year, 3 or 4 (maybe more?) people have been killed (hit by cars) while riding their bicycles. Very sad.