Average European and American cities look quite different. It's not that the Europeans (at least really not the Germans) don't love their cars. It's just that too many cars in a densely populated inner city area with winding streets are just a pain in the ass for everybody, including the car users. Most European cities started as small towns and villages in a time when cars weren't even invented. The typical European city grew from a small town with a church, a city hall and a market place in it's center, surrounded by a densely populated inner city area with mixed residential and commercial dwellers. Sometimes even city walls. You find restaurants, cafes, cinemas, theaters, churches, museums, banks, shops, etc. These are highly frequented areas but often not with the space and layout to deal with huge amounts of cars. So banning cars from such areas really is more of a necessity than anything else. Though I'm not for a general ban. I think it should be decided by the cities and it's people themselves.