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.