Have you been ICEd?

[Tyl]

Well, not ICED really, but....... see photos of Wickenburg AZ below. Arizona weather is warm and beautiful this time of year and The City of Wickenburg AZ was having their 'Gold Rush Days' events last weekend. Street vendors, a Rodeo, local museum to visit, lots of great places to eat, drink and have a good time etc. A lot of people came to town to enjoy and partake! Parking was at a premium. Everywhere all lots were almost full!
Six Tesla Supercharger stalls at City Hall are pictured below. Two had orange cones blocking them, I presume for Tesla owners to move, then park and charge, which I did. I don't know if any other Tesla owners came along while I was enjoying 'Gold Rush Days', the local museum and then lunch. I moved my Tesla after it was almost fully charged [252miles] just in case two more came along and needed the spots. I did go inside City Hall to the Police department to inquire why some Tesla supercharging outside stalls were ICED. The woman at the desk wasn't quite sure what I was talking about. She also was very busy with radio calls and other duties so I did not pursue further questioning. {I just wanted to enjoy my day} and thought to myself that if more than two Tesla's showed up together it would then be an issue needing immediate action. Later in the day I did see another Tesla MS in traffic, but that was it. So, maybe, there are just not enough of us needing a charge in a single location yet to make a big hubbub about the ICED spots. Two open seemed to work today! The signage present sure makes it difficult to enforce towing anyone. Only if there had been four or five Tesla MS owners would I have gone into overdrive to have the ICED vehicles towed. Sometimes you just want to have a nice lazy, warm, spring day and enjoy a beer We definitely need better signage. This sign [pictured below] courtesy of 'AmpedRealtor' is the best I've seen.
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[Obsoletion]

 

[yobigd20]

Three full weeks now this jeep Cherokee has been sitting here at the Hamilton train station blocking the 220V charger. Over the past 3 weeks I've complained several times to the office and twice to the parking garage director. They have yet to do anything about it. Let alone being in violation of their policies not to block these spots, it is now also in violation of their no-long-term parking policy. I have emailed their director again to report this new violation which is clearly spelled out in their policy. Also I contacted the Hamilton police department to report this vehicle as abandoned. Hopefully now it will get towed.

I'm also now thinking of contacting some sort of state representative to initiate a move toward stricter laws to enforce strong fees and immediate towing for violators. Don't know who to contact though.

 

[Timothy]

Three full weeks now this jeep Cherokee has been sitting here at the Hamilton train station blocking the 220V charger. Over the past 3 weeks I've complained several times to the office and twice to the parking garage director. They have yet to do anything about it. Let alone being in violation of their policies not to block these spots, it is now also in violation of their no-long-term parking policy. I have emailed their director again to report this new violation which is clearly spelled out in their policy. Also I contacted the Hamilton police department to report this vehicle as abandoned. Hopefully now it will get towed.

I'm also now thinking of contacting some sort of state representative to initiate a move toward stricter laws to enforce strong fees and immediate towing for violators. Don't know who to contact though.

Huh! I'm surprised there is still air in his tires!! :tongue:

 

[Dave EV]

Three full weeks now this jeep Cherokee has been sitting here at the Hamilton train station blocking the 220V charger.

This is where having those car positioning jacks that lift the tires would be useful, then you can push the vehicle out of the way. Perhaps if it was sitting in the middle of the isle they'd tow it.

 

[AudubonB]

Re Tyl and his ICE report for Wickenburg:

We knew this was going to be a 'situation' during Gold Rush Days. I had meant to set out an alert on this forum; and am glad someone was thoughtful enough to cone two SpC sites. Parking - and traffic as a whole - is ridiculous, moronic, to-be-avoided-at-all-costs during the town's annual shindig in mid-February. I'll try to throw out a Heads Up in 11 1/2 months!

 

[stevezzzz]

Whew! Glad I missed Gold Rush Days: I came through Wickenburg on 2/20 when the parking lot was empty; got to meet AudubonB and had lunch with him at Bedoian's (thanks, Audie!).

 

[tinm]

Last night at the Moab, UT supercharger. Lovely. The driver eventually came out, drove away. He and his passenger didn't seem to care a bit about parking there. Seemed quite deliberate, their choice of parking space.

 

[Skotty]

Tesla made the reasonable assumption that situating SuperChargers physically near -- as in short walking distance -- shops and food made sense for travelers.

They also made a design decision that clearly reflects a limit in how much money they were willing to budget for each SuperCharger site, and that limit meant we got parking spaces.

And parking spaces in high-traffic locations, usually within larger parking lots where 99.9% of the vehicles are ICEs, means SuperCharger spaces are going to get ICEd. The worst? Situating SuperChargers in hotel parking lots. That is just plain insane, as Tesla owners everywhere are discovering.

I blame Tesla. This problem was obvious before the first SuperCharger was opened. You design parking spaces, people are gonna park. They don't read, they don't listen, they don't observe. They just park their car and go do their thing, and don't care what you think. Or if they do know about Tesla they knowingly park their car their just to "get back" at the rich Tesla owners or something.

The situation is ugly and will stay that way until Tesla rethinks the design -- and location -- of SuperChargers.

Me, personally, I would rather not have to deal with ICE situations which are only going to increase, and therefore would be far more willing to give up food and shopping convenience for reduced ICEing conditions, meaning: situate SuperCharger locations further away from dense busy parking lots.

As for the design and layout, I've said it before: SuperChargers should be designed to look like gas stations with "pumps" you pull up to. Numbskull ICE drivers will be less inclined to park at something that looks like a gas station pump and not a parking spot.

I don't disagree with any particular point. But I think gas station style superchargers would have cost a lot more to build, and it would have likely limited the supercharger roll out in some significant way. The best Tesla can probably do is try to pick locations that are usually empty, and/or have very strong signage. Hotel lot sites definitely concern me. Are they in lots that frequently fill up? I'm actually watching the Columbia, MO site very closely, as I will eventually need it regularly. It is being placed in a hotel parking lot, and the parking lot is not all that big in my opinion. On the plus side, they are at least putting it at the back of the lot (behind the hotel) and not in front where people first want to park. Of the times I've checked it, the back of the lot has been mostly empty, so maybe it will be okay. But I haven't checked it late at night when the parking lot will be most full. Could also be a bigger problem around holidays or events where more people might be staying in hotels.

 

[rpc364]

Ellensburg, WA. Lots of parking in the surrounding spaces.

 

[tinm]

Every time I charge at Gallup, NM, there are hotel guests blocking chargers.

Here's a photo from last Thursday:

I suppose they'd been there all night (this shot was taken around 9am.) I mentioned it to the front desk of the Hampton Inn -- I do every time there's ICEing going on in their parking lot. Always get the same response... which translates to they could not care less.

Luckily the other two spots on the other side were available. Time I was there before this, three chargers were ICEd and the fourth had just barely room to fit, because the ICE was parked over the line.

Gallup. One of my least favorite supercharger sites.

 

[AudubonB]

Hmm. Tinm, it looks as though your picture also hosts two Model Ss that hung out there all night. Bad behavior all around?

 

[TexasEV]

Every time I charge at Gallup, NM, there are hotel guests blocking chargers.

Here's a photo from last Thursday:

View attachment 100667

I suppose they'd been there all night (this shot was taken around 9am.) I mentioned it to the front desk of the Hampton Inn -- I do every time there's ICEing going on in their parking lot. Always get the same response... which translates to they could not care less.

Luckily the other two spots on the other side were available. Time I was there before this, three chargers were ICEd and the fourth had just barely room to fit, because the ICE was parked over the line.

Gallup. One of my least favorite supercharger sites.

Please report it to Tesla so they can address it with the property owner.

 

[tinm]

Hmm. Tinm, it looks as though your picture also hosts two Model Ss that hung out there all night. Bad behavior all around?

Huh? Confused. My photo shows a large snow-covered pickup truck on the left and some snow-covered Toyota or something on the right. Two ICEs. Parked head-in into two back-in supercharger spaces.

What do you mean about "also hosts two Model Ss"?

 

[AudubonB]

Oops. Thought they were Ss!

 

[keithz]

I feel like a lot of this is caused by Tesla's decision to place the chargers near hotels/motels and shopping centres. They would have been better off putting it off at highway service centres. The traffic at these centres is transient. And more likely to understand that these are fuelling points like the gas station near them.

 

[SoTX_WestTX]

What's the phrase for this? "Dumpstered"? Trashed? (ChargePoint station in San Antonio)

 

[TexasEV]

What's the phrase for this? "Dumpstered"? Trashed? (ChargePoint station in San Antonio)

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What is the exact location? The telephone number for Waste Management shows in the picture. We all should make a phone call.

 

[Lloyd]

Corporate Web

http://www.wm.com/contact-us.jsp

 

[SoTX_WestTX]

It's behind the Palladium movie theater in the La Cantera shopping development. I emailed ChargePoint because one of the units was also broken (the plug was stuck, wouldn't release) and has apparently been that way for more than a year if PlugShare comments are any guide.