Tip of the week: Know before you go

We've featured some of the most stunning pictures found in Street View on the blog, from the Colosseum in Rome to the Parthenon (well, a replica) in Nashville, but there are also countless practical uses of Street View. Here's one of them: use Street View to take some of the stress out of parking.

When you're going into a city or to a new part of town, you probably don't want to waste time circling blocks to find areas where you can park. Here are some ways Street View can help:

• Take a look to see if there is street parking available at your destination.
• Try zooming in on signs to read restrictions.
• Find out which areas require parallel parking and which don't, in case your skills are a bit rusty.
• Find designated motorcycle spaces.
• Take a look around for parking lots. When you see parking lots, you can sometimes zoom in and read the rates so you can find the lot with the best deal.
• Look for parking meters so you know if you need to bring a handful of quarters.
• If you're tying to avoid all this hassle by biking somewhere, look for bike racks.

Google Maps may not be able tell you where you'll find a free space (unless you're in Santa Monica -- in which case we can!) but Street View should save you some time and hassle.

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

[NFGB] Link - from Google LatLong Related From Google Blogs: Google Earth for iPhone Malware? We don't need no stinking malware! Mixxx's Google Summer of Code 2008 Roundup Report plop: Probabilistic Learning of Programs