Transit oriented developments, or TODs, are mixed-use urban nodes designed with public transit as their core. The typology emerged from the idea that well-integrated and easy access to transit supports businesses and an active urban life, and that strategic transportation planning can help make thriving cities. But what if that transit, and the town, are both brand new?

Cut to Quay Valley, a proposed development out in the middle of California's Central Valley that would bear the testing ground for a bunny-slope version of the Hyperloop, Elon Musk's pneumatic wonder-transit. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), an organization intent on making the Hyperloop a reality but independent from Musk (and working with UCLA to get there), wants the new city to be the test environment for a Hyperloop mockup halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles – the end-lines in Musk's original proposal.

The Hyperloop would be the de facto public transit of Quay Valley's 7,500-acre plot, getting people to grocery stores, the movies, friend's homes, and eventually hooking up with larger Hyperloop networks connected to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Currently, there is no preexisting city infrastructure, and the site is surrounded by agriculture. This did not deter the Valley's developer, Quay Hays, from including multiple themed resort hotels and plenty of retail/commercial space in the plan. Everything will be run by solar power. The city would be populated by "long-distance" commuters from SF and LA – a vision that seems optimistic even with the Hyperloop, and absolutely absurd considering Hays' plan predates the Hyperloop by six years. Hays only recently has partnered with Dirk Ahlborn, founder of HTT.

The development's advisors include "two former Disney execs" and, perhaps, in spirit, Ebenezer Howard?: 

Ahlborn envisions the partnership as a way to stage the "ultimate test" of Hyperloop's designs. Although modeling Hyperloop on the intermodal scale of the individual city seems besides the point, when its central "hyper" characteristic – its speed – couldn't be put to the test here. The capsule and UX design could be, though.

Regardless, building is slated to start in 2016, and Hays has already started rezoning "grazing land" for residential development. If Hyperloop connections aren't feasible to support commuters from nearby cities, then residents may have to wait until 2029 to move in, when California's High Speed Rail starts operating along the same route. Maybe before then they'll come to their senses.