Anyone who’s sat long enough in Texas traffic knows it feels like going in circles. So maybe it’s fitting that one day it could be replaced with a loop that could make traveling from Houston to San Antonio, Austin or Dallas take about as long as a drive to Galveston.

No, seriously. Four cities in a little less than two hours, give or take. Some far sooner, via a system that would feel a lot like flying in a commercial plane, but in a closed tube across the ground.

A Texas plan using the Hyperloop concept envisioned by Tesla founder Elon Musk is one of 35 proposals from around the globe competing this week in Washington for bragging rights as the best initial project for the technology. Hyperloop One, the company currently testing the idea, sponsored the contest.

“From a planning perspective and from a regulatory perspective Texas is a good first step for Hyperloop,” said Steven Duong, the team leader, based in Dallas, for Hyperloop Texas. “Population is a big part of it, but not just population, but population growth. So is the climate in Texas for development.”

Though highly complex, Hyperloop is simply high-speed rail in a vacuum. Sort of.

"We use a custom electric motor to accelerate and decelerate a levitated pod through a low-pressure tube," according to the company's website. "The vehicle will glide silently for miles with no turbulence."

Passengers would ride in compartments, similar to high-speed rail trains, except there would be no windows. Instead, initial renderings have shown large video screens. Many have said the sensation, including that sense of picking up speed and some feeling of pressure during acceleration, would be nearly identical to flying commercially.

Though winning the contest guarantees nothing, there is benefit to putting Texas high on the map – if only for U.S. bragging rights. A good idea that generates investment, he said, might be the first one completed. In some ways Texas is ahead of proposals in places like the West Coast where interest is high, but so are the regulatory hurdles.

“There are states and areas with a progressive reputation out there … but from our standpoint, this is the place to do it,” Duong said.

The proposal, a feasibility study, is a very early look at possibilities and includes no cost projections or analysis of site-specific needs. While many Hyperloop projects focus on buried tubes and include tunneling into the ground, the Texas pitch envisions above-ground enclosed tubes, possibly with solar panels on top that would power the system, making it energy-efficient to the point of burning no fossil fuels.

While high-speed rail reaches a maximum speed of around 250 mph under the best conditions, and magnetic levitation has reached 375 mph in tests, Hyperloop claims a possible speed of 650 to 700 mph.

At that rate, someone could get off work in downtown Houston and still make happy hour in San Antonio. Austin and Dallas would just be a couple stops after that.

Believers in the idea think it could rearrange people’s lives and change urban mobility in monumental ways – even in car-crazy Texas.

Another proposal, this one a bit bigger, links Houston with Cheyenne, Wyo., with a freight and passenger Hyperloop connection. Colorado also has two other Hyperloop proposals in the running.

“We'd like to see Colorado host the first Hyperloop network and be a part of the future of travel," said Michael B. Hancock, mayor of Denver, in a release announcing the semi-finalists. "I am confident that this new and transformative method of transportation will bring substantial benefits to Colorado and the west."

Duong and his team from AECOM – a planning, engineering and management company – submitted the proposal, outlining both a freight and passenger transport strategy. The plan was privately developed but had support from the Houston-Galveston Area Council, U.S. Mexico Chamber of Commerce, Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Port of Houston Authority.

For freight, connections would be made to the Port of Houston, Laredo and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Passengers would be connected to downtown Houston, San Antonio, Austin and downtown Dallas with an L-shaped line.

In this proposal, there is no direct Houston to Dallas line. Duong said that is related to plans by Texas Central Railway for a Houston-to-Dallas high speed line. The privately funded rail line would follow utility easements between Houston and Dallas.

The Texas Central plan for high-speed rail is mired in the Legislature, however, as it has weathered intense opposition. Wednesday morning, the Texas Senate Transportation Committee will discuss a handful of bills filed by lawmakers who aim to stymie the project.

Those efforts, which center on concerns the rail line will ruin rural character between the two metro areas, follow any project that aims for big change, Duong said. Even if the regulatory environment is good.

“What that shows is you are going to run into that issue no matter where you do a project like that in the United States,” he said of the challenges to Texas Central.

Still, there is hope planners will eventually sell proposals such as the Hyperloop without the same level of concern some projects have faced, especially if they can show it will actually mean less disruption in the long run.

“Texas has no problem building highways that are soaring and cross all our downtown areas,” Duong said, noting Hyperloop could at least lessen the need for wider freeways if freight is moving along another route.

For the competition, Duong said the team will focus on their mega-region concept in the hopes of luring interest. Interstate plans through different parts of the country have technical or governmental challenges or both that a Texas-only idea does not.

“We have it pretty good here in Texas,” Duong said. “Same reason the Texas Central Partners are interested in Texas.”

While he is optimistic Hyperloop Texas will walk away a winner, Duong said it’s unlikely Americans, or any passengers, will get a first crack at Hyperloop travel.

“I think there is a very high probability the first Hyperloop system will not be in the U.S.,” Duong said, noting Middle East and Asian demands for high-capacity options other than automobiles, trains and airplanes. “And that system will be freight.”

Not being the first, however, comes with the upside of people easing into the idea of traveling in a tube at 600 mph.

If a Hyperloop happens in Texas, however, it could bring profound change. Already, the Houston region is stretched to the point where sense of place can be tough to define. Are Sugar Land residents Houstonians? What does it mean to live in a region of many cities?

A Hyperloop that makes drinks in Austin and dinner in Houston possible stretches that to even farther limits, Duong said.

“If you could travel between all these different cities, it kind of devalues what it means to put your roots down in a community,” he said. “That’s something we think about, talk about, a lot.”