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Field of Dreams is a documentary about farmer Kevin Costner bringing baseball and ghosts to Iowa. His ghosts don't teach him about the Christmas spirit, though; his ghosts teach him about something called "Induced Demand." And you know "Induced Demand" isn't a new thing either. It's been around since 'the time two hot dogs and two beers cost only $7 at Fenway.
If You Build It – He Will Come
The first ghost teaches Berkeley grad and farmer Kevin a very valuable lesson: "If you build it, he will come." Therefore, Farmer Kevin builds a baseball field in his cornfield to lure in his ghostly Father. But as infrastructure is provided, other ghosts are starting to appear. Inducing demand by building new infrastructure worked too well. His Father didn't come, but lots of ghostly friends came instead. This requires more extensive and better infrastructure, and farmer Kevin almost loses his farm in the process. He needs more revenue, and since he can't just raise taxes willy-nilly, he needs to provide some serious customer service first. He needs seats, stands, bleachers.
If You Build It – They Will Come
For whatever reason, the voice of Darth Vader is also there because somebody was trying to burn his books or something. And instead of piloting his Death Star, Darth Vader gets driven around in a VW Hippie-mobile to see a baseball game – very confusing, I know.
Anyway, Darth Vader gives farmer Kevin more sage advice about Induced Demand. He says: "People will come. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children … Ohhhhhhhh, people will come. People will most definitely come." Giving away good value for cheap or free always leads to demand. Instead of driving to Chicago, Kansas, Minnesota or Milwaukee to see Major League players, people can see them in Iowa now. And these players are ghosts – not even the Yankees or Dodgers can provide that kind of value.
And people most definitely came
This is a great lesson for farmer Kevin in 'Induced Demand' and 'Induced Supply.' He wanted baseball players. If he wanted to see football or soccer players, then he would have built a completely different infrastructure. And if he hadn't built all these facilities, none of these trips to that Iowa cornfield would have happened. Demand can be created by providing the right kind of infrastructure for the right type of cost. If the prize is right, these facilities will entice people to make additional trips they would not have made before, and they often don't even know why. And the cheaper the supply, the more demand can be induced.
Inducing demand always leads to more congestion
All the ghosts are pedestrians; they walk in through the cornfield and require no additional infrastructure. Most spectators, on the other hand, come by car. They require a lot of space and will make a huge mess – and often more than it's worth. Farmer Kevin has to deal with congestion very quickly, and his little parking lot won't be enough. Farmer Kevin created a mini-Carmageddon in Iowa because he forgot to provide and prepare for better transportation options. Farmer Kevin has two space constraints: the street and the parking spaces. Widening the street to his farm would cost farmer Kevin a lot of money, and then he would have to convert more valuable cornfield space into car parking. That space is unused most times of the year, whereas planting crops brings revenue. The additional cost of this approach would drive Kevin ever closer to bankruptcy. This leads us to another lesson that the Field of Dreams can teach us. If space is precious, people must switch from oversized cars to space-optimized public or active transportation instead. But you need to induce that, too. You must provide bike lanes, bike parking, bus lanes, and bus shelters.
Farmer Kevin is a good guy, but a bad developer
For some movie critics, the documentary ends on a disappointing note. Kevin starts talking to the last of the ghosts, which turns out to be his Father John. A good ghost father should have given farmer and new infrastructure developer Kevin better advice. John should have told Kevin to outsource all the infrastructure costs to the county and protect his own property with better land use. What if he could push all the costs for widening the street and providing parking onto the public? The cost would be socialized, and the revenue privatized. While this would have been a more realistic ending, luckily, the documentary stops before it turns into the story of the Oakland Athletics and so many other local infrastructure and transportation projects.
And maybe that is a good thing because, needless to say, the documentary was a huge success. It made many grown men and traffic engineers cry.
Happy Holidays!
