Swyft Cities wants to make dense, walkable districts easier to build.

The company grew out of a transportation problem at Google.

As Google’s campuses expanded, the company wanted better connections between buildings while creating room for denser, mixed-use development. A team explored existing transportation options and eventually began working with Holmes Solutions on the technology that became Whoosh.

Swyft Cities later spun out of Google to commercialize the system. Today, it licenses Whoosh technology across North America and other designated markets and works on the planning, design, and implementation of new systems.

Whoosh uses small electric vehicles that travel independently along elevated networks of fixed cables and rails. Riders choose a destination and the vehicle travels directly there. It can move through junctions, take different routes, and pass intermediate stations. Stations can be relatively small and incorporated at ground level, overhead, or directly into buildings.

That flexibility is central to the idea.

Swyft Cities sees transportation as part of the development equation. Parking garages take up land and consume significant portions of development budgets. Large streets separate destinations that may sit physically close together. Transit projects can take years to plan and build.

An elevated, modular network creates another option. A system can begin with a few destinations and expand as a district grows. Buildings can connect directly into it. More trips can happen without requiring another parking space at each destination.

The company is now trying to translate that idea into real places. Irvine has been planning Whoosh transportation for the Great Park, where the system could connect destinations across the massive site. Sugar Land, Texas, is continuing to work with Swyft Cities on routes, costs, engineering, and potential connections between major destinations around the city.

Those projects will help determine how well the concept works outside the prototype stage.

The bigger idea is already worth paying attention to.

A transportation system can change what gets built around it.