City of Vancouver Electric Vehicle Strategy Survey

[Paul Carter]

City of Vancouver is looking for input into their EV strategy.
Please provide your input to the survey.
The survey is open to valid postal codes from Canada and available until August 21st, 2016.

 

[green1]

I know I don't live in Vancouver, but as a frequent visitor (and one who usually needs to find destination charging), I decided to fill out the survey.

I really am impressed with the charging situation in BC in general, every small town has something it seems. Alberta could learn a lot from BC on EV strategy.

 

[ChadS]

I'm a visitor too, and tried to fill it out...but at one point it asks for your postal code and won't accept a US code. No way to skip it. So I just abandoned the survey.

 

[green1]

Interesting, it does accept postal codes that are not from BC. but maybe not zip codes.

I think it was designed for residents, but honestly, they're the ones who need the charging the least.

 

[Paul Carter]

I'm a visitor too, and tried to fill it out...but at one point it asks for your postal code and won't accept a US code. No way to skip it. So I just abandoned the survey.

Thanks for trying. I've updated the first post to include that its open to valid postal codes from Canada.

 

[Paul Carter]

Interesting, it does accept postal codes that are not from BC. but maybe not zip codes.

I think it was designed for residents, but honestly, they're the ones who need the charging the least.

I believe other Canadians can have valid points on their experience. I'm sure based on postal code the weightings of the survey results will show some regional variations in responses that might have useful insights.

 

[f-stop]

thanks Paul, filled out the survey and also passed it along to friends interested in buying EV in near future

 

[wayner]

Can you use the H0H 0H0 code of the North Pole?

 

[Paul Carter]

Can you use the H0H 0H0 code of the North Pole?

Yes Santa is Canadian after all according to Canada Post.

 

[pairtrader]

Thanks Paul, done.

 

[richrootes]

Cheers, Paul - done

 

[Lon12]

Thanks Paul. I filled it out as well.
I tried to top up at the Oakridge Mall charger on my trip to Vancouver last week only to find it occupied. Mostly by plug in hybrids. So I would definitely be in favour of charging $ for a fill if it meant that more chargers would be available for folks who really need it. My car would not accept the power from my Parents old "knob and tube" wiring so I was looking for an 80 amp charger in town. Most were 30 amp.
I did get a chance to try out my CHAdeMO adapter for the first time.

 

[green1]

I personally think a better option would be to charge for not filling. give a certain amount of grace after a charge session ends, but if you're still parked there after that, ticket or tow would be my vote.

 

[Lon12]

I would have voted for that but I didn't see "ticket or tow" as an option in the survey question. I'm sure we will need to do that at some point in the future.

 

[green1]

The option was not there, however there was an open form dialog box, so I entered it there.

I personally think that using pay to charge is not the right answer to too many people wanting to charge if your goal is to encourage more adoption. If your chargers are that popular that you can't keep up with demand, then maybe what you really need is more chargers, or to discourage people who aren't actively charging. Not punish those who need the charge.

(that said, I understand charging for electricity as a business model, or to subsidize the cost of installation, maintenance, and electricity, but that was not how the question was worded, it was worded as how to deal with congestion)

 

[Aussie Bob]

I completed survey from Ottawa

 

[f-stop]

I personally think that using pay to charge is not the right answer to too many people wanting to charge if your goal is to encourage more adoption. If your chargers are that popular that you can't keep up with demand, then maybe what you really need is more chargers, or to discourage people who aren't actively charging. Not punish those who need the charge.

I agree with the above and said so in the survey.

We're lucky in Vancouver to have lots of free public chargers, although most of them are in pay-parking lots. The popular totally free spots around town have some max #hrs parking while charging (e.g. Oakridge with a generous 4hr max at its 4 x J1772 + 2 x 80A HPWC) - the free spots at this and other locations are very popular, but from my experience seem to have pretty good turnaround, plus you can check ahead on the ChargePoint site to see if a J1772 is available (of course not so with the HPWCs). I think more street-parking with EV charging scattered around town would be useful as the number of EV owners increases - perhaps replace a few parking meters here and there with EV chargers. Enforce the max charging time limit like they do with other parking regulations to ensure turnover of the spaces.

As a contrasting example of how NOT to do it - at the new UBC Alumni Center they installed 5 J1772 plugs, but the parking is paid AND max 30 minutes. Any guesses how often these chargers are unoccupied?

Existing city bylaws state that all new mixed-use/commercial buildings must have 10% of parking "EV ready" (20% for new apartments/condos) - but that doesn't seem to translate fully into actual number of chargers installed. eg. The new Telus Garden building pay-parkade has over 300 parking spaces but only 4 actual EV charging spots. The new SNC Lavalin building does better with 10 new charging spaces in its paid-parking lot of 300+ spaces. I know of a new condo w/ ground level supermarket with a very high ratio of spaces with EV plugs (at least 16 spots in its small free public parkade) but all those plugs are 120V! Meanwhile most older public parkades which have EV spaces only have perhaps 2 EV chargers. This ratio of EV spaces with 240V chargers installed is something to improve if the City is serious about increasing EV adoption and meeting it's goal of 100% energy from renewable sources by 2050.

 

[skrenes]

The option was not there, however there was an open form dialog box, so I entered it there.

I personally think that using pay to charge is not the right answer to too many people wanting to charge if your goal is to encourage more adoption. If your chargers are that popular that you can't keep up with demand, then maybe what you really need is more chargers, or to discourage people who aren't actively charging. Not punish those who need the charge.

(that said, I understand charging for electricity as a business model, or to subsidize the cost of installation, maintenance, and electricity, but that was not how the question was worded, it was worded as how to deal with congestion)

I completely agree. I said no to a fee and then in field for the reason, I said basically what you said with the addition that, in areas where there appears to be hogging, introduce a 2 hour time limit (with ticketing/towing enforcement, if necessary). Most chargers are available, so their statement that there is a congestion problem is flat out wrong except for a few key spots.

Thanks Paul. I filled it out as well.
I tried to top up at the Oakridge Mall charger on my trip to Vancouver last week only to find it occupied. Mostly by plug in hybrids. So I would definitely be in favour of charging $ for a fill if it meant that more chargers would be available for folks who really need it. My car would not accept the power from my Parents old "knob and tube" wiring so I was looking for an 80 amp charger in town. Most were 30 amp.
I did get a chance to try out my CHAdeMO adapter for the first time.

The Oakridge Mall spot is one of the few spots that does experience congestion. They definitely need a time limit since I've seen cars sitting their all day as their owners use the Skytrain to commute to work while their car wastes a spot

 

[green1]

Most chargers are available, so their statement that there is a congestion problem is flat out wrong except for a few key spots.

My suspicion is that the question on the survey is trying to legitimize an already made decision to monetize charging. They just want to be able to say "see, EV owners asked for this!"

Of course I have also been accused occasionally of being a bit too cynical...

 

[skrenes]

...Oakridge with a generous 4hr max at its 4 x J1772 + 2 x 80A HPWC)...

As a contrasting example of how NOT to do it - at the new UBC Alumni Center they installed 5 J1772 plugs, but the parking is paid AND max 30 minutes. Any guesses how often these chargers are unoccupied?

Existing city bylaws state that all new mixed-use/commercial buildings must have 10% of parking "EV ready" (20% for new apartments/condos) - but that doesn't seem to translate fully into actual number of chargers installed. eg. The new Telus Garden building pay-parkade has over 300 parking spaces but only 4 actual EV charging spots. The new SNC Lavalin building does better with 10 new charging spaces in its paid-parking lot of 300+ spaces. I know of a new condo w/ ground level supermarket with a very high ratio of spaces with EV plugs (at least 16 spots in its small free public parkade) but all those plugs are 120V! Meanwhile most older public parkades which have EV spaces only have perhaps 2 EV chargers. This ratio of EV spaces with 240V chargers installed is something to improve if the City is serious about increasing EV adoption and meeting it's goal of 100% energy from renewable sources by 2050.

I didn't realize Oakridge had a time limit. I don't recall seeing that last time and have a congestion issue too, except at the end of the day when I saw men in suits driving away.

I completely agree about UBC. Talk about an insincere half ass effort. Paid parking AND 30-min max? I suppose they then take that data and say "see, no one uses it". What a load.