Querétaro Transit Interconnectivity

Scope

2020

Project Location: Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico

Project Team: Peiming Chen, Tuyen Le, Meining Shen, Lauren Stokes

Disciplines

Urban Design

Transit Design

Premise

As post-COVID-19 mass transit will require increased sanitation efforts, outreach to multiple generations will be vital to the continuation of communities, such as Santiago de Querétero, Mexico.

Our goal was to create an innovative public transit system with multi-functional transit hubs that cater to networking, resiliency, health, and protection in a post-pandemic era. By comparatively dissecting three neighborhoods of varying social and economic class: Bolaños, Centro Historico, and Jurica, we felt that we could gain a better understanding of how to propose a solution for increased interconnectivity.

Existing Conditions

The drawing at right outlines the three neighborhoods used in the contextual study of the city of Querétaro.

According to first person interviews and Google Street View imagery, current conditions show bus stops as rickety and placeless shelters, garbage-littered streets, or unmarked spots on the curb. Social class is a high determinant of these factors.

Proposed Solution

To the left, a masterplan of the main arteries of the city shows  how the Querétaro Transit Interconnectivity solution adapts to the network of the existing infrastructure.

Below, the solution is outlined as Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. In the future, we imagined the proposal to be applied to other neighborhoods to further emphasize and correct the network within the city. 

The images below visualize how the solution would play out at real intersections in the city. The visualized Primary Hub exists at a well-traveled exchange between highways, focusing on train transportation. The visualized Secondary Hubs are displayed in all three neighborhoods and includes bus and bike networks. Finally, the visualized Tertiary Hub exists in Centro Historico and adapts the street for both work and play.

Primary
An above-ground light rail train runs along major highways around the city's historical "downtown."

Secondary
Buses dispersing from the major primary hubs create a network of access in our three case-study neighborhoods.

Tertiary
Bikes and scooters reach even further into these neighborhoods, accessing smaller infrastructure.