Giving Compass' Take:

• Smart Cities Dive takes a close look at the hyperloop — a high-speed form of electric transportation — and what such technology means for climate, ecosystems and mineral resources.

• Could this innovation help solve transportation issues across different communities in the US, while promoting more clean energy? Or will the costs outweigh the benefits?

• Here's more about the future of urban transportation.

Deep in the heart of steel country on a balmy September morning, Cleveland City Council members, professors and non-profit leaders hopped out of their cars and Ubers and filed into a conference hall to find out why an Ohio transportation agency had taken the unusual step of using public money to pursue an experimental form of electric transportation: hyperloop.

Attendees to this transportation workshop were no stranger to new technologies, especially innovations they hoped would make transportation faster and simpler. The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) is part of a “smart city” group already working on adding “internet of things” devices to traffic signals, message signs and traffic cameras in Cleveland and the surrounding region, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich broke ground on a self-driving car test facility in Logan County in July.

But hyperloop was another level of innovation for this corner of the Great Lakes region. The ultra-fast, electric-powered transportation technology, still in the research and development stage, is expected by proponents to propel levitating pods full of people and cargo at speeds of up to 750 miles (1,207 kilometers) per hour in a vacuum tube between metropolises.

Read the full article about what the hyperloop means for the environment by Meredith Rutland Bauer at smartcitiesdive.com.