Here’s a neat idea though I wonder how much good it might really do us around here. … There’s a new Web site called PrimoSpot.com and it contains a searchable list of all of the street parking signs in Manhattan.

Want to know when you can legally park on the curb within one-tenth a mile of 52nd and 5th? This site will show you via an overlay on Google Maps (again, a free plug because it’s a neat idea not because there is a relationship between The Examiner and Google Maps) how much time you have to park on either side of the street.

Basically, all you have to do is type an address in the search box and choose the search radius to expand the search area. That will bring up the right map with markers. The marker colors indicate time left at parking spot; bright green for more than four days, red for less than 24 hours and black if parking there at all is a bad idea. You click on the marker and up pops a dialogue box showing the exact information on the parking signs there.

The site has been up since Aug. 1 when it launched in beta test mode. Almost 100 percent of Manhattan is now mapped out and people are starting to figure out how to use it. The first groups that have taken to it are, of course, the delivery and courier services but also film location scouts.

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It just goes to show that you just can’t have too much information when it comes to traffic and transportation.

Electronic guardian angel

This seems like a bit of a no-brainer: legislators in West Virginia are preparing to introduce a bill that would allow traffic cameras to be used in tracking vehicles during Amber Alerts. These would be vehicles known to be tied to child-abduction cases.

Using a federal grant, West Virginia officials will be able to install about 100 cameras along highways that are mostly in urban areas. These cameras will not be installed until the end of next year but The Associated Press quotes House Majority Leader Joe DeLong saying it will be like enlisting an “electronic guardian angel.”