Today I’m forgoing my usual First Friday routine of taking questions to talk Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

It’s next week, and I figure a one-stop resource dump for all traffic-related APEC information would be beneficial. Keep this on your refrigerators for the next week or so, and be sure to fill up your bookmark folders. I’ll try to cram as much info as I can in this space.

The U.S. State Department put out a comprehensive news release about traffic and parking restrictions around the Hawai’i Convention Center. It’s been reported everywhere, but you can go straight to the source here: www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/10/175912.htm.

It details all roads that will be closed except for vehicles "with a law enforcement purpose."

The city’s APEC-specific website is also another one-stop resource. Visit www1.honolulu.gov/mayor/apec.htm.

On the site you will find a link to the city’s Nixle service. Anyone can sign up and get email alerts.

This is useful not just for APEC, but for general traffic information as well. You’ll get accident reports and road closure alerts from the Honolulu Police Department throughout the year.

The city’s site also has a link to sign up to receive the city’s news releases. You might want to sign up for APEC week, then unsubscribe. It’s not every day you might be interested in Mayor Peter Carlisle’s daily public schedule.

Then there’s Twitter. I know many of you aren’t on it, but if there’s ever a time to get started, APEC is it.

The city Department of Transportation Services has its own account at twitter.com/hnldts. It is normally updated pretty regularly, and lately it’s been very active as APEC comes into full swing. It even goes as far as to re-tweet (repost) other accounts.

It also doesn’t hurt to follow twitter.com/APEC2011Hawaii. It mostly tweets about meetings and events, but no doubt it will offer some public service announcements, too.

Obviously, news surrounding the conference is fluid, and traffic could end up being worse than expected. That’s why it’s important to stay tuned in to media reports, including staradvertiser.com.

You can also follow me on Twitter, twitter.com/GenePark and the Star-Advertiser, at twitter.com/staradvertiser, for even more live updates.

I’ll be updating throughout the event. And feel free to email me any traffic gripes or concerns you have about APEC throughout next week. I’m probably not finished talking about the conference.

It’s going to be a long week for all of us, so let’s remember to drive with aloha.

Reach Gene Park at gpark@staradvertiser.com, or Twitter as @GenePark.