KC among cities working on new transportation tool

The U.S. Department of Transportation and Sidewalk Labs – a division of Alphabet Inc., the holding company of Google Inc. and small tech efforts such as Google Fiber – have agreed to work with Kansas City and six other cities to create a new transportation tool.

DOT and Sidewalk Labs are working together to develop Flow, which is designed to be the first platform for analyzing transportation and helping to change traffic patterns by sharing their data with the public.

As part of DOT’s Smart City Challenge, Kansas City is among seven finalists in the running to receive up to $50 million to fund technologies involving connected and autonomous vehicles and smart sensors. The other finalists are Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Denver, Colo.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Portland, Ore.; and San Francisco.

Read more from the Kansas City Business Journal.