Maps can be an efficient way to store information on construction projects. If you know where the cones and hardhats are, click on the line at that spot and read all about it.

The state Department of Transportation’s HDOT Highways Project Status map — find it online at 808ne.ws/2eRxy4J — provides such a peek at roadwork statewide.

Select one of the purple lines on the maps and there’s a concise table of costs, start date, percentage completion and scope.

There’s also an email address for a contact person, who probably will have a much bigger chore from now on, keeping that email inbox clear.

Smoking in cars with children? Please don’t

The City Council is weighing the merits of Bill 70, which would ban cigarette smoking in motor vehicles carrying children under age 18. Certainly kids benefit whenever spared exposure to secondhand smoke, but is the proposed ordinance a case of government overreach?

Since 2006, the state has banned smoking in enclosed and partially enclosed public spaces, ranging from restaurants to various recreational settings, for the sake of public health. Private spaces, like a person’s home, are another matter. And smoking in a private vehicle, while ill-advised, isn’t a danger like texting and driving. It’s a problem either way.