Urban Design of Public Transport Corridor on Wusi West Road in Xining

Xining, Qinghai Province, China

Executors: Hansen Partnership Pty Ltd（Australia）and the World Bank Project Team

TOD; Public Transport; Pedestrian-orientated（POD）; Urban Design

Completed in November 2012

The World Bank hired Hansen Partnership to conduct an Urban Design Workshop as part of the Xining, Qinghai Urban Transport Project. The workshop focused on using urban design to improve transport efficiency and promote sustainable urban development. Concepts from the workshop demonstrated how to apply principles of TOD, bus routes, and pedestrian-oriented development (POD) to an urban road corridor to build a more sustainable urban environment.

The workshop was tasked with developing a proposal for the Wusi West Road corridor to accommodate projected population growth and reduce congestion from private vehicles. Wusi West Road connects downtown Xining with key development areas to the west. Dedicated bus priority lanes were chosen as the key mechanism for improving transit. The relationship between the Wusi West Road corridor and its surrounding roads, as well as open spaces, was analyzed in the project. The workshop also looked at opportunities to improve investment in urban regeneration and redevelopment along the corridor. The area along the corridor was divided into four districts (East Chengxi, West Chengxi, Haihu, and Xichuan) and different dedicated bus lanes and street layouts were recommended to take into account the available road width in each district. Unifying elements such as street planting, median with vegetation and lighting, bus stop design, and public street furniture could be used to unify the appearance of the boulevard and help establish Wusi West Road as a “Great Street” for the city.

Results from the workshop demonstrate the ability to retrofit a transit corridor to plan for new growth while at the same time increasing investment in abutting land and promoting the use of public transportation. The workshop focused primarily on the physical aspects of providing a bus priority route on an existing transit corridor; however, the study acknowledges the importance of provisions for pedestrians, bicycles, and other non-motorized forms of transit, the need to connect the bus priority system to express and local bus services, and investment in bus priority infrastructure and technology.

Length of the corridor is 16km

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The urban design concepts for Wusi West Road were completed in 2012, thus providing a basic guide for the detailed design of Wusi West Road.

With technical expertise from the World Bank, concepts of TOD and POD were integrated into the design of the public transport corridor on Wusi West Road and its surrounding urban areas in Xining.

Home page of Hansen Partnership Pty Ltd: http://www.hansenpartnership.com.au/;

http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/273481468242357479/pdf/819850WP0P12780Box0379855B00PUBLIC0.pdf