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Hoarding of Public EV Parking Spot

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At all charging locations of my hospital system (using ChargePoint and Sema EVSE), the deal is you get 4 hours free, then the rate goes to $5.00/hour (basically $5 for 20 miles---not competitive to charging at home or even ICE travel). This works well to keep chargers freed up. Note that the apps for the EVSZE vendors send out text messages and/or e-mails alerting the EV owner that the $$ will begin to apply.
 
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Keep in mind that, and my apologies if I missed it, the garage may fill up by the time the car is done charging. If the garage is full where else is the person supposed to park once their charging is complete? It's quite common here in the few garages that have charging in them that they will fill up so where are you supposed to go when your car is completed charging? If you have no place else to park, say what you will to me about it, I'm not moving my car.

Granted with my Tesla I never even use the garage EV spots around here anymore since most aren't free and have time limits that are enforced so the risk of not having a place to move my car to outweighs any perceived benefit to charging.

The problem, IMHO, isn't the drivers/owners, it's the lack of charging infrastructure to meet demand. I'd say focus your efforts on that...

Jeff
 
Keep in mind that, and my apologies if I missed it, the garage may fill up by the time the car is done charging. If the garage is full where else is the person supposed to park once their charging is complete? It's quite common here in the few garages that have charging in them that they will fill up so where are you supposed to go when your car is completed charging? If you have no place else to park, say what you will to me about it, I'm not moving my car.

Granted with my Tesla I never even use the garage EV spots around here anymore since most aren't free and have time limits that are enforced so the risk of not having a place to move my car to outweighs any perceived benefit to charging.

The problem, IMHO, isn't the drivers/owners, it's the lack of charging infrastructure to meet demand. I'd say focus your efforts on that...

Jeff
If you're not willing to move your car when it's done charging, you shouldn't use those chargers in the first place (ESPECIALLY for PHEVs).
 
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Keep in mind that, and my apologies if I missed it, the garage may fill up by the time the car is done charging. If the garage is full where else is the person supposed to park once their charging is complete? It's quite common here in the few garages that have charging in them that they will fill up so where are you supposed to go when your car is completed charging? If you have no place else to park, say what you will to me about it, I'm not moving my car.

Granted with my Tesla I never even use the garage EV spots around here anymore since most aren't free and have time limits that are enforced so the risk of not having a place to move my car to outweighs any perceived benefit to charging.

The problem, IMHO, isn't the drivers/owners, it's the lack of charging infrastructure to meet demand. I'd say focus your efforts on that...

Jeff

You certainly will move your car once charging is complete, else it will be moved for you (towed). That's the policy already in certain SoCal corporate garages and of course in Washington State. Although in fairness in WA they'll probably just write the $125 ticket the first few times. These are not parking spaces. They are charging spaces. Analogous to gas pumps. Park at one of those at a busy SoCal Arco location and see how that goes over.

Private property edge cases aside, how often have we already seen prime charging spots at movie theaters, Costcos, hospitals, and yes, even time-restricted popular garages saturated with cars that quite probably aren't charging? At first at one corporate garage in SoCal, the charging spaces were hogged by hybrid owners milking their 11 miles of electric charging for all it was worth (and then squatting all day). A couple of policy changes (see towing above) put the kibosh upon that behavior fairly quickly. Whether a for-profit garage even cares is another story entirely.

There's got to be more to the equation than supply and demand. Enforcement and education being the two variables that come to mind. Similar to blue disabled spaces and red curbs, green EV *charging NOT parking* spaces will slowly permeate the (inter)national consciousness.

Then there was the Bolt owner who tried to charge at a supercharger location recently. The security guard wouldn't even let him park there for 5 minutes - gotta love it. Thing is, the Bolt owner had bought the car the night before and his salesman evidently said, "Oh, you can charge *anywhere*." Gah! Fortunately, there were some Clipper Creek J-1772s nearby.

Point being, this is the level of ignorance ^H^H^H^H knowledge that evidently serves as the lowest common denominator these days. See hybrid owners above for another class of short bus folks.

Supply, demand, enforcement, education, proper signage, and a lot of green paint would be a good start.

In Oregon, the EV spaces on private property came with municipal no parking signs paired with EV charging signs. And with managers who had NO problem calling their towing service for ICErs. The managers considered the EV spaces to be no different than red zones in that regard.

I suspect we will be subject to a patchwork of enforcement and non-enforcement for the next 5-7 years nationally. Then again, it only took a generation or two to get people to wear their seatbelts with any degree of consistency.
 
If you're not willing to move your car when it's done charging, you shouldn't use those chargers in the first place (ESPECIALLY for PHEVs).

I think he has a valid point - if there isn't anywhere to move the car to, what are you expecting the EV driver to do? And at the same time, if the lot is completely full, there shouldn't be any new EVs looking to charge there, right? Unless you can coordinate swaps between EVs already parked in the garage somewhere...
 
I think he has a valid point - if there isn't anywhere to move the car to, what are you expecting the EV driver to do? And at the same time, if the lot is completely full, there shouldn't be any new EVs looking to charge there, right? Unless you can coordinate swaps between EVs already parked in the garage somewhere...

Maybe it would help to consider *charging* spots as *not* parking spots. You wouldn't park in a blue or red zone without risking a ticket or tow. Same principle for the green paint.
 
So if the charging spot is occupied, they'd close the lot off as full when there is an empty space still open?


Ain't life a bitch? One good rhetorical question deserves another.

Here are 2 scenarios that actually exist today:

1. The Whole Foods model. There are parking garages hereabouts in which Whole Foods has installed a surprising number of chargers - both L2 and L3. Shoppers plug in, shop, come back, wait for their charge to finish in most cases, and leave.

2. The salaryman model. These poor, wretched schleps (which is to say, most of us) need a parking spot for the day and really don't want to be bothered with 4-hour limits or lack of capacity. These folks have the option of parking in a regular space and then topping off at a charging space after work, or can lobby, as was noted above, for more chargers so they won't have to wait so long. Either way, there is a difference between *parking* spaces and *charging* spaces that will need to be made sooner rather than later if it has not been made already (as it has in plenty of cases). Nobody is owed a parking space because they choose to charge their EV.

In both scenarios, if there's no room at the inn, there's no room at the inn. Demand, meet supply.

Also in both scenarios, the way to protect limited supply is with effective education/signage and enforcement (tickets/towing).

In short, red and blue, meet your new best friend, green.
 
Ain't life a bitch? One good rhetorical question deserves another.

Here are 2 scenarios that actually exist today:

1. The Whole Foods model. There are parking garages hereabouts in which Whole Foods has installed a surprising number of chargers - both L2 and L3. Shoppers plug in, shop, come back, wait for their charge to finish in most cases, and leave.

2. The salaryman model. These poor, wretched schleps (which is to say, most of us) need a parking spot for the day and really don't want to be bothered with 4-hour limits or lack of capacity. These folks have the option of parking in a regular space and then topping off at a charging space after work, or can lobby, as was noted above, for more chargers so they won't have to wait so long. Either way, there is a difference between *parking* spaces and *charging* spaces that will need to be made sooner rather than later if it has not been made already (as it has in plenty of cases). Nobody is owed a parking space because they choose to charge their EV.

In both scenarios, if there's no room at the inn, there's no room at the inn. Demand, meet supply.

Also in both scenarios, the way to protect limited supply is with effective education/signage and enforcement (tickets/towing).

In short, red and blue, meet your new best friend, green.

The Whole Foods Model here is a single L2 charger. Frequently filled by a Tesla not plugged in... but it is a great spot!
 
wow, so you'd be willing to stay with your car during a 4 hour L2 charging session? that may work for you but I suspect many others have far better uses for their time.

In my case I would actually. If I have a laptop and internet connection and cellphone that's an office! Admittedly I know that is not a solution for most... But for road charges I definitely will make that time productive somehow.
 
you need to educate people that the spot where the charger is, is a charging spot, not a parking spot.
This is where signage language makes a difference:
EV Parking Only” vs. “EV Charging Only” or every better “EV Parking Only While Charging”.

Little nuances like this do make a difference. Most (not all..., but most) folks care and education really does help.
 
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