Hyperloop: Making Infrastructure Exciting Again
The Hyperloop is a grand project. It’s a transport system that will be able to run commuters from Los Angeles to San Francisco in just 30 minutes. Never have people in the 21st Century been so excited by the prospect of an infrastructure project. The Hyperloop, like the interstate system, will connect people like never before, changing much about the way we live.
“Distance starts to melt away a lot of different barriers to how we all actually live on the planet,” Hyperloop Technologies CEO Rob Lloyd told Engadget.
Back in the 1950s, the United States was growing — it needed an infrastructure to support the growing number of cars on the roads. President Dwight Eisenhower said, “We are pushing ahead with a great road program, a road program that will take this nation out of its antiquated shackles of secondary roads all over this country and give us the types of highways that we need for this great mass of motor vehicles.”
The Hyperloop would once again rewrite the rules of how we’ll live and where we’ll live in relationship to our work.
The big question is when will all this come together. Lloyd says somewhere around 2020. This time-frame will be dependent on the 3-mile test track the company is building in the dessert North of Vegas. It expects to complete the project by the end of 2016, when the company hopes to hit over 700mph on its frictionless test track. Lloyd describes it will be the company’s “Kitty Hawk” moment.
***
Natalie has been writing professionally for about 6 years. After graduating from Ithaca College with a degree in Feature Writing, she snagged a job at PCMag.com where she had the opportunity to review all the latest consumer gadgets. Since then she has become a writer for hire, freelancing for various websites. In her spare time, you may find her riding her motorcycle, reading YA novels, hiking, or playing video games. Follow her on Twitter: @nat_schumaker
Photo Credit: Steve Jurvetson/ Flickr
