Mileage-Based User Fee Winners and Losers - RAND Corporation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge the support, guidance and intellectual contributions of the three
members of my dissertation committee. Professor Martin Wachs chaired my dissertation committee.
Marty has a reputation in the transportation studies community for being an extraordinary graduate
student advisor. The reputation is well deserved. Marty has been generous in sharing his time and
his vast professional experience with me. Howard Shatz was the very first member of my
dissertation committee. Years before I selected a topic, I knew that I wanted to work with Howard
and I greatly appreciate his patience, generosity, and encouragement as I considered, and rejected,
various topics over a period of nearly seven years. Howard is brilliant and we share many intellectual
pursuits, but, most importantly, Howard is a kind man and dedicated to his graduate students. The
third member of my dissertation committee is Thomas Light. Tom was a natural addition because
of our shared passion for the discipline of transportation economics. While I appreciate our
friendship, I would like to acknowledge the great deal of time and attention that Tom paid to my
work on this dissertation. My outside reader is Professor Mark Burris of Texas A&M University. His
insightful comments and critiques directly and indirectly led to a much strengthened final product.
Mark was very thorough in his review and responded very quickly. The contributions of these four
scholars were invaluable to the completion of this dissertation.
I would like to also acknowledge the financial support of the Pardee RAND Graduate
School Energy and Environment Advisory Council. This group was assembled by the previous
Dean of the RAND Graduate School, John Graham. I was very fortunate to receive two
consecutive fellowships to fund my final two years of research and writing. As a practical matter, I
may not have been able to complete this dissertation without the financial support of this group. I
would also like to acknowledge Dean Graham’s interest in my research and his critiques of my
assumptions regarding American travel. His influences are strongly felt in this dissertation. I would
like to further acknowledge the Bradley Foundation for their financial support as I worked to
identify a dissertation topic. This support was fully the result of the work of Professor Richard Neu.
I appreciate his early guidance and regret somewhat that we were unable to scope a dissertation
topic in the discipline of economic geography. I also acknowledge the financial support of the
Federal Highway Administration which funded some of my research travel.
The past seven years studying and working at the RAND Corporation were wonderful and
transformative. As a research institution, this is entirely due to the qualities of the people who
taught, advised, counseled, supervised, and supported me. I am choosing not to name them all
because I am terrified that I will inadvertently exclude a mentor or a dear friend. I would like to
acknowledge several individuals, however, who made particularly important contributions to the
dissertation and the completion of my degree. My colleague Paul Sorensen has also been researching
MBUFs and I frequently called on him to discuss the topic. My classmate Sarah Outcault held me
accountable to my daily goals and without her dedication to our partnership, as well as her constant
support and encouragement, I am not sure I would have completed my dissertation pre-prospectus.
The RAND library staff, especially Roberta Shanman, provided invaluable research and technical
assistance to me. While all of the staff at the RAND Graduate School are wonderful and helpful, I
would like to especially acknowledge Assistant Dean Rachel Swanger. Rachel has an incredibly
difficult job and I frankly have no idea how she manages to accomplish everything that she does. My
time at the RAND graduate school has been entirely a period of transition from one administration
to the next; Rachel was the only constant. Her dedication to the school is unparalleled with the
notable exception of Founding Dean, Charlie Wolf. I want to acknowledge and express admiration
for Professor Wolf ’s continued and lasting contributions to the graduate school.
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