hyperloop
Hyperloop
Transportation is all about getting from point A to point B in the least amount of time possible. These paths must be optimized to cover important points such as cities or other areas of dense population, and also account for the topography the path traverses. This is the crux of the hyperloop.
The idea is to create a macrocosm of the pneumatic tubes seen at many banks and other places and use this design to transport people. The example given in the article involves a typical trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco, which takes approximately 6-7 hours by car and about 1.5 hours by plane. The trip on the hyperloop would reduce this to 30 minutes, which is considerably less. The idea was first introduced by Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX, Tesla, and co-founded PayPal. Obviously, SpaceX and Tesla are very technologically advanced, which makes this proposition a little more mundane, but nonetheless incredibly difficult to acieve.
The relation of this concept to networks is mapping traffic via game theory (chapter 8). We can represent LA and SF as nodes and the methods of travel as different paths. The cost of the paths and ultimately the payoffs, can be calculated through combination of the amount of time spent traveling, personal attributions, and the monetary cost of travel. For example, we can see that travel by flight is much quicker, but is it a better payoff? From a simple google search of one way flight prices from LA to SF, we get that it is approximately $70-80. In addition, the cost of transportation to the nearest airport, the transportation from the destination airport, and the fear of flying as well as other factors must be accounted for. These costs are unique as each person; for example, each person lives a different distance from their nearest airport. This costs increase as more people want to fly; this causes delays, overbooking, and other travel hassles. Travelling by car, the price for driving 380 miles is about $76, given about 20 mpg and $4 per gallon of gas. The cost for gas increases with more people (and traffic) as your car will not get 20mpg with constant stop and go traffic. From the tradeoffs and payoffs, we can see that the equilibrium point of this graph is that more people choose to fly. But there are still a decent amount of people choosing the drive for one reason or another. The payoff is generally higher with flying.
Now with these two paths under consideration, the hyperloop is added in. Though the concept plans to beat this situation, we can model the paths as the paths in a Braess’ Paradox since ideality is not always reality. Thus, this creates another path that connects the two end points, at what seems a much greater payoff for the consumer. The introduction of such a high speed transportation, creates much more incentive for everyone to use the hyperloop. But, if everyone chose the hyperloop, then it would cause a severe delay in lines as each capsule can only carry a certain number of people at once; this is just the hyperloop version of bumper to bumper traffic. The incentive of such a miniscule travel time attracts more people, as the payoff from the individual point of view is much greater, even though the individual payoffs in the grand scheme could be lower. This creates a worse equilibrium than if there was no hyperloop. So the question is, is this project actually worth it?
The link to the specific article I used for this blog:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/elon-musk-unveils-plans-for-hyperloop-high-speed-train/