1 . Now cities are full of cars. Some families even have two or more cars. Parking (停车) is a great problem, and so is the traffic in and around the cities. Something will have to be done to change it. What will the cars of tomorrow be like?

Little cars may some day take the place of today’s big cars. If everyone drives little cars in the future (将来) there will be less pollution (污染) in the air. There will also be more space for parking cars in cities, and the streets will be less crowded. Three little cars can fit (适合) in the space now needed for one car of the usual size.

The little cars will cost much less to own and to drive. Driving will be safer, too. What is more, these little cars can go about 65 kilometers per (每) hour.

Little cars of the future will be fine for getting around a city, but they will not be useful for long trips. If big cars are still used along with the small ones, two sets of roads will be needed in the future. Some roads will be used for the big, fast cars, and other roads will be needed for the slower small ones.

2 . Last weekend, I said goodbye to another dear old friend. We had 12 fine years together, but our relationship was becoming dysfunctional(不正常的). Unwanted emissions and serious health problems were the final straw, leaving me with no choice but to make a trip to the knacker’s(收废汽车者的)yard.

I am now car-free for the first time in 20 years, and it feels strange. When I gave up meat, I did so mainly for environmental reasons, and I didn’t miss it at all. I would like to say the same about my car, but I can’t. It was first and foremost a financial decision: keeping the old car on the road was getting too expensive.

But doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is still doing the right thing — I now have a chance to rethink how I move myself and my family around, and can try to find a more environmentally friendly means of transport.

Going car-free is, I think, a lifestyle change that many of us are going to make over the next few years, as car ownership becomes increasingly unnecessary, expensive and socially unacceptable. However, it is easier said than done. Now my car is gone. I still need to get around. But how? I already cycle to work and use public transport when appropriate. But there are some occasions when a car seems to be the only way.

I won’t buy one: I have joined a car-share program and will use taxis more often. I will hire a car if I need to drive a long distance. But then I am still travelling in fossil-fuelled cars(燃油汽车), like when I quit meat and ended up eating more cheese. I fear I may have swapped one environmental problem for another.

I am also afraid to think about the ultimate fate of my car. I have just offloaded more than a ton of metal, plastic, rubber, fabric, electronics, oil and petrol that will end up in a landfill. There are millions of similar vehicles in the UK alone that will have to go somewhere.

Maybe I am overthinking it. According to Charlie Wilson, a climate scientist at the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, getting rid of a private car is no doubt a positive step to reduce CO₂ emissions.

He points to research by the OECD’s International Transport Forum. “They showed that moving from a private vehicle fleet(车队)to a shared vehicle fleet can greatly cut the number of vehicles you need to deliver the mobility that we need and want. If that vehicle fleet is electrified, you can also bring CO₂ emissions close to zero.”

So in other words, just get rid of your car.