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Backing a Leaf into a charging bay would be stupid
Backing a Leaf into a charging bay would be stupid
I believe that you are supposed to stop before you hit the EVSE :crying:
The Hong Kong Government is aggressively deploying EV charging stations in Government and Private car parks around Hong Kong. Target was 1,000 stations by the end of June, and looks like they have hit it. The stations in Government car parks are 220V 13A sockets on the walls, and most car parks are getting about 20 charging bays. The bays are marked "EV Charging".
To put that in perspective, that is 4 charging points per EV on the road, today. A case of 'if you build it, they will come'?
Today, I went to the Cheung Sha Wan Government building car park, to have a look. Nice setup, but all 20 bays had ICE cars parked in them.
Given the number of EVs in Hong Kong, I have mixed thoughts about this. If the bays were restricted to just EV parking+charging, then most likely there would be on average 19-to-20 bays sitting empty all day long. In a few years time, who know, but today that would be the reality. But, allowing ICE vehicles to park there means the bays are next to useless, as EVs can't get near them.
Thoughts?
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Backing into parking spots is how people are taught to park in Japan, and probably HK as well. It's considered safer since you don't have to reverse into traffic (often with narrow lanes) as you leave. I have a number of Japanese friends over here in the States that still back into these huge spots at the grocery store.
In terms of usage, I think 2 of those 20 spots should be marked and enforced as EV only. As the numbers of EVs on the road increases, the percentage of those charging spots that are enforced as EV only should increase. Basically, it's great that the infrastructure in now in place, but the enforcement should scale with need. No point in having 20 empty parking spots when parking is at a premium.
Don't you have the exact same problem -- but worse -- at the end of the game when parking head first?Backing in has a few inherent disadvantages that:
a) it would take longer to park your vehicle thereby slowing everyone behind you. Imagine a multistoried parking lot at airports or at ball games and think of the no. vehicles all streaming in to find a spot before the game starts.
Yes, the problem is there but definitely not worse. Backing out is much quicker than backing in.
??? Why ???
The problem seems to be symmetric to me.
Reverse park: forward turn past the space, reverse in. Leaving: drive straight out,
Forward park: drive straight in. Leaving: reverse out past the space, forward out.
Theoretically. But parking involves a more precise maneuver and therefore is expected to take more time. I don't know if practice-makes-less-bad would apply and people would get faster at parking backwards.
I agree. I always park the opposite way of the car I park next to, so that I can get my passanger side really close to the passanger side of the adjacent car, and leave room for me to exit on the drivers side without blocking the drivers side of another car. So I'm about equally adept at reversing in as I am driving in forward, and there's basically no difference in the amount of time I use for each maneuver.I think the type of parking space also affects this. Here in HK, it is very much harder to drive into a parking space forward. The lanes are narrow, spaces are narrow, and you have nothing to help guide you in or tell you the limits of your car. Reversing in you have both mirrors and an HD backup camera to help.
220V/13A seems like you would only get a few miles range no? Are these garages somewhere that people generally park for work? So 8hrs at a time, then I can see why they would just put in 13A service otherwise you aren't going to get much juice if its shorter term parking.
I printed up some notes that say:I print up and keep the following note in my cars. If I see an ICE car in an EV slot I place it on their windshield.
Please do not park in the places for electric vehicles. At the moment there are not many places to charge an electric car and many of us early adopters plan our routes on how and where we can charge. If we arrive and all parking spaces are full we could be left stranded.
By having people drive electric vehicles it helps you by helping to keep a lid on the demand and price of gasoline. If demand for gasoline drops then the prices can stabilize, but if we all use more gas we can be sure the prices will continue to rise.
So please help keep these spaces open for those people that need them.
Thank you
I agree. I always park the opposite way of the car I park next to, so that I can get my passanger side really close to the passanger side of the adjacent car, and leave room for me to exit on the drivers side without blocking the drivers side of another car. So I'm about equally adept at reversing in as I am driving in forward, and there's basically no difference in the amount of time I use for each maneuver.
I find that it is much easier to get the car exactly where you want it if you reverse into a spot. Reversing is the same as rear-wheel steering, and this mode of steering means you can place the non-steering wheels exactly where you want them and then the steering wheels will swing around placing the vehicle perfectly parallell to the space. It's not without reason that most fork lifts use rear-wheel steering.