Elon Musk’s proposed Hyperloop transportation system would supposedly hurtle travelers and goods at speeds in excess of 700 miles an hour. Sadly, his initial plan was shot down by critics who felt he would never get through the necessary political red tape required for his ideal route between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now an independent organization has taken up the task of building the super-fast, physics-bending system and they are vowing to build it within ten years.
According to Dezeen:
Crowdfunding platform JumpStartFund has launched a new company dedicated to creating a final working prototype of the Hyperloop within ten years, and says it will take the system abroad if politics and red-tape get in the way of it being built in America.
Whoa! No! We have to have the Hyperloop in America and we would be insane to let it get away. While it seems impossible to get politicians in America to do anything these days, one thing we can always count on is their ability to look out for themselves — which is why the East Coast should jump on fast tracking the hyperloop if the West Coast won’t.
If we just built the first one from New York to Washington, D.C., then all of the senators who need to get from their office to their Wall Street fundraisers could do it in about 19 minutes flat. Surely that would be enough incentive for them to cut through any potential bureaucratic issues.
Once we have one system in place, it’s only a matter of time before more will pop up. Think about just a few of the potential travel times for New Yorkers:
1. Union Square to Rockaway Beach ~ 1.6 minutes
2. Penn Station to Six Flags ~ 5.9 minutes
3. Grand Central to Poconos Mountains ~ 8.19 minutes
4. NYC to Florida ~ 85.6 minutes
5. NYC to Los Angeles ~ 3.5 hours
That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to getting such a revolutionary technology off the ground. It would only get faster and better and cheaper and more widespread. Imagine your morning commute suddenly being 90 seconds. The only downfall would be that real estate prices would probably explode for miles around the city. People will be calling Williamsburg, Virginia the new Williamsburg, Brooklyn because it’s just a quick Hyperloop ride in. Regardless, it’s worth the risk. The East Coast needs to come together and make this shit happen.
(Photo: Hyperloop Concept Drawing)
