Giving Compass' Take:

· Writing for Eco-Business, Meredith Rutland discusses the potential affect of hyperloop, an innovative experimental form of electric transportation, on the environment. 

· How could this form of transportation help the environment? How does it help address climate concerns? 

· Here's more on electric transportation and hyperloop.

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 levelof 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 kilometres) per hour in a vacuum tube between metropolises.

Read the full article about hyperloop by Meredith Rutland at Eco-Business.