A traffic plan to make residential areas car-limited (VCP)

Since early in the 1970s, it had been consistently a political principle, in a traffic policy,
for the PvdA of Groningen to make not only the inner city but also surrounding
residential neighbourhoods car-limited.
With the Traffic Circulation Plan (Verkeerscirculatieplan, VCP) for the inner city being introduced in 1977, the municipality of Groningen, under the PvdA wethouder, set about making a traffic plan for the whole city area, the Plan Traffic and Transport (nota Verkeer en Vervoer), whose objective was originally to keep through traffic out of residential areas. This
paper analyses the planning process of this plan, in terms of this objective.
Experiencing strong opposition from the business community against not only the VCP but also the traffic plan for the northern neighbourhoods, the political leaders of the PvdA had become very cautious in presenting a traffic plan that included measures to restrain car traffic.
The draft, Discussion Plan, which was published in 1979, was already very ambiguous in terms of making residential areas car-limited. However, with strenuous objections from the business community, planning had been substantially suspended, and the Definitive Plan, which was published and decided in 1982, was almost empty as a plan.

自20世纪70年代初以来，在交通政策领域，格罗宁根的PvdA（格罗宁根人民党）一直秉持一项一贯的政治原则，即不仅限制市中心区域，亦涵盖周边住宅区的汽车通行。随着1977年城市内部交通流计划（Verkeerscirculatieplan，简称VCP）的推出，格罗宁根市政府在PvdA市议会委员的领导下，着手制定涵盖整个城市区域的交通规划——交通与运输计划（nota Verkeer en Vervoer），其最初目标系将穿行交通排除在住宅区之外。本文旨在分析该计划的规划过程，并以此目标为分析焦点。面对商业界对VCP及北部住宅区交通计划的强烈反对，PvdA的政治领导人已变得异常谨慎，在提出包含限制汽车通行措施的交通规划时尤其如此。1979年发布的草案——讨论计划，在限制住宅区汽车通行方面已显得相当含糊。然而，在商业界的强烈反对下，规划工作几乎暂停，直至1982年发布的最终计划，其内容几近空洞。