From the LA Times:
Visionary technological proposals generally trace a life cycle of three stages. First comes the thrill of the unveiling (the "gee-whiz" stage); then there's the hard work of research and development to convert rough sketches into practical form; finally comes the crash, when the original dream has to confront cold, hard reality. Let's hope there aren't any passengers aboard when Elon Musk's Hyperloop hits stage three…"We know very little about transit patterns within the state," says David Brownstone, an expert on transportation economics at UC Irvine. "It would be nice if we slowed down and tried to figure out how many people are traveling from point A to point B."

For the full story, please visit http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20130818,0,2474072.column.