It’s hard for me to get a sense of the structure of this story without the interviews, which I gather you haven’t done yet, correct? It feels to me like it takes too long to get to what the story is really about, this potential innovation, pie-in-the-sky Musk thing. Yes, you need to set up the traffic issue, but it needs to be conversational and this is kind of stilted. Why don’t you try recording yourself speaking your script, play it back and listen. If you like, you can do that and send me the file and I’ll listen, too. This story has potential. I love the idea of profiling these dreamers.

Texas Transportation Podcast Transcript:

 

In May 2016, the Uber and Lyft– backed Proposition 1 was defeated by Austin voters. After spending more than $8 million on their campaign, the ride sharing companies made good on their promise and promptly left the city. On November 8th AP Style on dates is Nov. 8 a new Proposition 1 will be up for vote. Remember that your reader doesn’t know what you’re talking about. What is Proposition 1? Slow down and explain…. Dates/AP Style: Don’t use the year if you are publishing your story within the same year of the event you’re covering. It’s Nov. 8 (you can search apstylebook online, by the way).

According to moveaustinforward.com, “The $720 million Smart Corridor plan will significantly address congestion, increase safety, and provide more transportation choices for Austinites.” Don’t quote websites. You use quotes when they punctuate a story, move it forward. You do not need a quote here. This should be paraphrased.

Austin is consistently dubbed the fastest growing city in the US. There is no doubt that traffic is a major issue as anyone who has driven in Austin before 8AM or after 3PM can attest. But is this is what? merely an expensive Band-Aid on a hemorrhaging bullet wound? A social and infrastructural imperative? Or Both? Look up AP Style on time and on United States

 

INSERT PETE INTERVIEW: How not passing the first prop 1 left Austin with inferior platform.

 

Transition to opposing view – RideshareAustin

 

NEED: New Prop 1 Interview – Move Austin Forward

 

Right now expanding roads and restricting ride sharing apps are at the forefront of city dwellers’ minds, who says? This needs attribution as do all assertions in news stories.  Climate change is real but in sprawling metro like Austin there is still no alternative to driving.

One of the most famous innovators of our time recently grappled with this issue while sitting in LA traffic. The California High-Speed Rail system was just approved and he was unimpressed. It would not be the fastest but it would be one of the most expensive rail systems in the US. This, in his opinion, was not the way of the future.

Ideas are the currency of most entrepreneurs. Unless you’re billionaire Elon Musk. In which case you have your plate full with electric cars and commercial space travel. On August 12, 2013, Musk, the man behind Tesla and SpaceX, published a proposal called the “Whitepages”. In it he open-sourced the production of one of his most ambitious projects to date, the hyperloop. “A fifth mode of transportation”

 

INSERT JAMES MCGUINESS INTERVIEW: EXPLINATION OF THE HYPERLOOP

 

The SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition design weekend took place at Texas A&M University on January 29-30, 2016. James McGuiness along with his team of undergrad and graduate engineering students from the University of Texas were among the industrious hopefuls vying for a chance to build their pod and test it on the SpaceX test track in California the following January. Takes too long to get here. I don’t really know what your story is about until we’re halfway in it.

 

INSTERT JAMES MCGUINESS INTERVIEW: BUILDING A TEAM AND GOING TO COMPETION

 

Texas Guadaloop did not qualify to advance into the actual pod production and testing phase of the completion. Undiscouraged, McGuiness and his team started a GoFundMe and began entering in various design competitions in the hopes that a spot will open up this January.

 

INSERT JAMES MCGUINESS INTERVIEW: EXPLAINING WHAT THEY BUILT, HOW THEY GOT THE MONEY, AND THEIR HOPE

 

Though there are a couple private companies seeking to build their own hyperloop, the technology is still shaky and it is unclear whether it will rise to be the “fifth mode of transportation” that Musk envisions.

 

When asked about his current home city and the proposed spending on highway improvements McGuiness had this to say.

 

INSERT JAMES MCGUINESS INTERVIEW: TRAINS

 

To check out more of Texas Guadaloops progress checkout this storify: I don’t think a Storify works with this story. You need something that will complement an audio story. Perhaps an interactive graphic with traffic stats? 

https://storify.com/franceshaileyo/texas-guadaloop/preview