Urban Transport Corridor Study, Xining, China

Xining is the capital of Qinghai Province, in north-west China and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. Hansen Partnership was invited by the World Bank to formulate a comprehensive urban design guideline manual to support urban transport corridor development in the city.

This was achieved through the application of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and Pedestrian Oriented Design (POD) principles to existing transit corridors to improve public transport efficiency, pedestrian priority and urban sustainability.

The project involved extensive fieldwork and collaborative workshops with the World Bank team, Xining government officials and technical experts. The objective of the project was to recommend urban design solutions based on TOD and POD principles within an existing and emerging transit corridor in Xining, China, demonstrating the concept’s economic, social and environmental benefits. The corridor under review was Wusixi Road, a 16 km avenue, connecting the downtown/central area to the city’s rapidly expanding growth area in the west.

The final report was presented as a ‘best practice’ urban design concept manual for sustainable urban transport corridor development in China and subsequently published by the World Bank.