WHO WE ARE

Juliette Michaelson

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Juliette is an urban planner specializing in integrated transportation and land use planning. At PPS, she has managed and assisted in the management of several important and exciting projects. She is currently managing an effort to train New Jersey county and municipal officials in land-use planning techniques that will improve people’s ability to get places, without putting undue stress on already overburdened roads. The workshops, funded by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, are based on case studies of existing integrated transportation and land use efforts across New Jersey. In parallel, Juliette is managing the production of a short documentary about Context-Sensitive Solutions, aimed to train municipal and county decision-makers on community involvement and flexibility in roadway design.

The workshops and the video are part of a larger effort by the NJDOT to carry out its New Jersey Future In Transportation (NJFIT) policy program. The program represents a paradigm shift for the agency, as it attempts to manage traffic congestion not by increasing roadway capacity but by encouraging the development of walkable, bikable and transit-friendly neighborhoods. Juliette wrote key informational factsheets about why and how to implement NJFIT, available here.

Juliette also managed an effort by Montgomery County, Maryland, to reorient its future growth away from the urban edge and toward existing, underdeveloped centers. Focusing growth inward and to some extent upward, will allow this first-tier suburb to preserve its valuable Agricultural Reserve, revitalize some of its aging commercial centers, and improve the quality of its small-scale planning efforts.

Juliette has also helped to train NJ TRANSIT staff in improving the agency’s train stations and turning them into important transportation and community assets. The trainings taught approximately 80 station managers, engineers and planners to envision the agency’s 210 stations as community-building Places, not just utilitarian structures used only to move commuters.

Juliette received her Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and her Master’s Degree from Columbia University. Her Master’s Thesis analyzed the positive effect that NJ TRANSIT’s new MidTOWN DIRECT service had on residential real estate values near the stations. Analysis of 78,000 residential sales between 1993 and 2003 revealed that home values increased by an average of 113% within walking distance of train stations (accounting for inflation), compared to 80% further out (between one-quarter mile and five miles). For this project, Juliette received the Charles Abrams Award for Best Master’s Thesis.

A native of the beautiful city of Paris, Juliette is committed to making all urban and suburban areas more lively, transit-oriented and pedestrian-friendly.

Education

Princeton University, Bachelor of Arts in Political Theory
Columbia University, Master of Urban Planning, recipient of the Charles Abrams Award for Best Masters’ Thesis, recipient of the William Kinne Fellowship

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