Public Charger Courtesy

You'll find it gets even worse. The mall I was at Sunday, out of 4 EV parking spots, mine was the only EV vehicle. The other 3 spots were filled with pickup trucks and SUV's. Even though EV parking spots, just like handicap spots, are supposed to be regulated by code it seems that there is zero enforcement.

 

The public library. Ear my house has 6 "hybrid only" parking spots that are always taken by SUV's and other cars. Really is annoying. What can be done? If you call the cops they'd probably laugh at you or just not come.

 

could print up some of these, and maybe get a box for taking up an EV space:

http://www.youparklikeanasshole.com/files/notice_1.pdf

and can send in photos of bad parking at base site:

youparklikeanasshole.com

 

I went to gettysburg a few weeks back, and at the museum they have a parking section for "green" vehicles, hybrid, electric alt fuel etc..

Well anyway it was full of "regular" cars and trucks, and luckily there was one spot left that I took. I was going to say something to the people inside, but it probably wouldn't have done any good.

 

How about this, at the parking garage in the building next to me, 4 ChargePoint stations, all 4 of them where ICEd, however, the parking garage attendants have the keys, so they can move the vehicles, if an EV or PHEV needs to charge:

 

Yesterday, I wanted to charge up at Ikea in San Diego, but two Car2Go cars were occupying the charging spots. Blink Network told me they will soon start charging real dollars for a charge. They will charge not just for the time your vehicle is actively charging, but for the entire time your car is attached to their charging station. If people come back to the station to disconnect the cable, hopefully they will have the courtesy to move their vehicle at the same time.

 

ICEing, or parking an ICE car in an EV only charging spot, has been a big issue here in California since the old style chargers were installed back in 1997. The law here is that people who park at an EV charging station must be connected to the charger or they can be towed. The problem is that the law also requires a specifically worded sign and so far I haven't seen a single site that has the sign.

There are a few places that enforce anti-iceing laws, most notably in Santa Monica where you will get ticketed if you park in the EV charging spaces.

Things are likely to change once charging for charging is adopted widely. Suddenly the car parking and not connected is disrupting the revenue stream and that is going to push enforcement.

 

as a leaf owner i've had my nuts in a bunch about 'plugin optional' cars taking charging spots but clearly the problem is ICEing, just due to the fact that 99.99% of cars are ICE...

i long for the day that there are so many EVSEs around that this is no longer a concern...

 

Re: Public Charger Courtesy, He may have been unplugged.

Someone else might have unplugged the car instead of the owner. That has happenned to me -- I was parked at a Blink charging station, and someone unplugged it in the middle of charging, while I was in the restaurant. The Blink charger emailed me that there was something wrong, so I went back and found the charging cord disconnected, but hanging over the slot. There were three other vacant Blink charging spots near by, and one each of the other two charging spaces...all empty, so it was not another plug in/electric vehicle person who did it.

 

So I guess that's EV ENVY? Too bad the charging systems don't have a PIN like banks use to turn off the charger, and give someone a nice jolt if they tried without it.

 

LMAO! I printed those out last year. Very handy here in Los Angeles where everyone is a VIP.

 

This might be a silly question, but I'm a newb when it comes to public charging stations... Are they free or do you have to pay to use them?

 

Depends on the specific charging station.

 

I was at Google the other day and the number of EVSEs they have on campus is amazingly many.

 

It's a frustration for Prius owners, but it must be a serious problem for Leaf owners at times.

 

unfortunately they are not open to the public. i wish chargepoint would just take them off their map! i think they do go away when you turn off 'restricted' chargers but the default is to show all chargers.

 

to add insult to injury, the first ICE'd EVSE parking i ever saw was in a walnut creek public parking garage... by an infiniti with dealer plates.

 

I checked out a new ramp yesterday. They had cones placed in the charging-station spots, a not-so-subtle indication not to park there unless you're going to be plugging in. Good thing too, it looked like all the spots on that floor were full otherwise.

 

That's what they do at Century City Shopping Center in LA, it seems to be very effective. There are 6 GE chargers there but three of them are dedicated to Coda (they have an experience center there where you can test drive their sedan) but have 4 cars so one of the public spaces is permanently blocked. The other two stations are more often than not in use, I think that there is at least one Leaf owner that works at the Mall, the same car is there most times I visit the Mall.

I have sugested that they upgrade the old LPI charger by escalator 1 to J1772 but nothing has been done so far.