The Neville Parker Award is awarded to two non-thesis master’s reports in the field of policy and planning. This year Joe Denver, a graduate from the MURP program at UF, won the award for his master’s research paper titled: “Embracing Capital Investment: An Analysis of Development Oriented towards Miami’s Metrorail”.

Dever graduated with a UF Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from DCP in May, 2021. “In laying out what research I wanted to do, understanding the full background of a transit system that was built after automobiles had become the dominant mode of transit was essential,’ says Dever. The intent of the paper was to explore Miami’s Metrorail system to understand the historic context of that transportation project and how the city embraced that capital investment to develop neighborhoods or install other networks (like sidewalks and bike lanes) that would enhance the Metrorail.

This research was supported by Dr. Alakshendra (UF Department of Urban and Regional Planning), Dr. Ruth Steiner (UFTI), and Aaron DeMayo (Future Vision Studios).

These lessons of transparently defining objectives, communicating with stakeholders effectively during the completion of the project, and supporting auxiliary improvements for the entire network can lead to more effective outcomes. Projects like this one still occur and many still have similar challenges. Dever added, “knowing those challenges in advance and helping to manage those risks improve the final product and the perception of that product”.

Link to the award: Student Awards – CUTC (mycutc.org)