Charging stations failing to reach the last mile

[Lanzer]

A big hats off to the City of San Jose as part of the cities to embrace alternative fuel and laying out the EV infrastructure. As part of their deployment, two charging stations were build in the San Jose Convention Center with free charging.

Attending a convention this weekend, I was excited to be able to take advantage of a public charging station for the first time. It's time to rake in the benefits of being an early adopter!

When I arrived at the convention center, I circled around the parking lot not finding any charging stations. Finally I parked at a handicapped spot to look around, and I found out why I couldn't see the charging stations...

Two gas cars were parked at the parking spaces where the charging stations were installed!

Upon closer inspection, I found out why the spots were occupied. There were signs labeled "Electric Car Charging Station", but there are no signs saying that those parking spots were reserved for electric cars only. The two parking spots are closest to the entrance, and without any guidance, those spots are the first to be occupied in the morning.

I felt like it's my duty to inform management about this problem, so I talked to a staff member at the parking facility about the issue. The staff apologized and said that "we should have cones to block off the parking spots. We can't do anything now but we'll lay them down tomorrow morning". Feeling like I've done my part, I parked at a regular spot and spent my day at the convention.

When I returned the next day, long behold, the two parking spots were taken again by gas cars. No cones, no notices.

I visited the office once again to be greeted by a different staff member, who told me that he had heard nothing about blocking off the parking spots. He then added "I cannot put a cone there for you because those parking spots cannot be reserved just for you, they are reserved for the general public". :roll: Knowing that the real solution is to have local management place cones every single morning, I dropped the issue and now I'm looking for who would have the authority to actually put a proper sign up at the charging stations.

So there you have it. Even though there is the good will start building the EV infrastructure, there are still various spots where bugs need to be worked out. Have anyone else experienced similar problems at other locations?

 

[walterbays]

I fear situations like this may become widespread far more rapidly than charging stations themselves. I wish some prominent EV association(s) would advocate for a set of sensible charging station guidelines, or that Nissan would do so on their behalf, so that the voice would be strong enough to be heard. Something like...

Access to electricity is important. Prime parking location isn't desired. Often such locations are highly undesirable because they promote conflict with ICE drivers. Charging stations should be located in the most distant part of the parking which is safe and to which it is practical to run electricity.

Charging parking spaces must be clearly marked as for EV parking only. (BEV and PHEV okay, ICE and hybrid ICE not) Parking enforcement, ticketing and/or towing should be routine, and there should be an on-site contact (in person and/or phone) to report violations.

Free charging is nice, but access to charging is more important.

The cost of charging ought not exceed the cost of gasoline.

Free parking is nice, but access to charging is more important.

The cost of parking an EV (if not free) ought to be the same as parking an ICE.

L2 charging is nice, but access to charging is more important.

E.g., in addition to 2 L2 charging stations, consider installing 20 plain old cheap 120VAC outdoor electrical outlets (L1).

When both L1 and L2 charging is available, L2 should be in short term parking and L1 in long term parking. E.g., at an airport, an hour or two of L2 charging is valuable to someone picking up a passenger, but someone parking for a week out of town is completely satisfied with L1.

Charging stations (like the San Jose Convention Center) which are usually inaccessible due to ICE parking will at least carry warnings in the notes of directories like chargingstations.com so drivers will know not to rely on them. For directories without notes (like, I fear the Leaf's onboard directory) I think it might be better to omit them entirely.

 

[Cinnabar]

When I arrived at the convention center, I circled around the parking lot not finding any charging stations. Finally I parked at a handicapped spot to look around, and I found out why I couldn't see the charging stations...

Sorry, but I have to ask. Do you have a handicapped placard?

 

[ericsf]

Two gas cars were parked at the parking spaces where the charging stations were installed!

I agree: public parking EVSE which are not marked AND enforced are as good as useless.

When I went to check out the charging station in San Rafael, CA I also noticed they used 2 prime spots next to the exit / entrance and pay staytion. However the difference with San Jose is that signs and the painting on the ground clearly indicates that those spots are reserved for electric cars.

Considering how clueless the San Jose convention center parking staff was on this matter I may be giving them too much credit but the reason they installed the EVSE in prime spots could be able to accomodate handicaped EV drivers.

 

[TEG]

...Charging parking spaces must be clearly marked as for EV parking only. (BEV and PHEV okay, ICE and hybrid ICE not) Parking enforcement, ticketing and/or towing should be routine, and there should be an on-site contact (in person and/or phone) to report violations...

Better still, the signage should say "while charging only". As we have different types of EVs with different charge connectors the problem goes beyond just "ICE in the EV spot", but also to "wrong kind of EV". For instance a Leaf camped out in a spot with only a Tesla EVSE, or a Tesla parked in a spot with only a Rav4EV EVSE.

 

[scronce]

Two gas cars were parked at the parking spaces where the charging stations were installed!

Had the same problem on Saturday the 21st at the San Jose Convention center. Both spots were ICEd. It was 4:45pm and the owner of one of the cars (black pickup) was sorting through some items at his driver door. Took a few minutes of talking to get him to move to anther spot so I could charge. I told the attendant about the other car in the charging spot. He said he would call security ad have them ticketed. No idea if he did but the other car was gone when I got back around 8pm.

I summited a problem report on the chargepoint website and got a fast reply.

Thanks for your feedback and request for EV signs at the stations located at 150 W San Carlos St, San Jose, California 95113. We will forward your request to the city (station owner). We suggest you may also want to write the city and request signs be put in place at these charging stations. We appreciate you contacting us.

Might need to go on a letter writing campaign to get the San Jose Convention center to put up proper signs and monitor these spots.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

make noise!! write the management of the convention center, the city council and post in the feedback of every local paper in the area. get the issue out there.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

make noise!! write the management of the convention center, the city council and post in the feedback of every local paper in the area. get the issue out there.

And I thought *I* was easily provoked.

Seems like you'd get further asking for a discussion with the convention center facilities folks, and working your way up their management chain. Someone there was motivated (funded, required, or interested) to install the EVSEs.. if you can find the right person to talk to, they're probably (for now) interested in making it useful.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

make noise!! write the management of the convention center, the city council and post in the feedback of every local paper in the area. get the issue out there.

And I thought *I* was easily provoked.

Seems like you'd get further asking for a discussion with the convention center facilities folks, and working your way up their management chain. Someone there was motivated (funded, required, or interested) to install the EVSEs.. if you can find the right person to talk to, they're probably (for now) interested in making it useful.

Oh I am not implying. That we should get bent out of shape. It would be nice if the convention center was able to fix the issue but there is an underlying mechanic here that needs to be addressed.

More signage? Not sure that's the answer. Moving spaces to a less desirable. Area might not be financially feasible at this point.

There needs to be legislation that is as effective as handicap parking violation and that requires a lot of noise and I see this as not really with the convention center at all

 

[Electric4Me]

...Charging parking spaces must be clearly marked as for EV parking only. (BEV and PHEV okay, ICE and hybrid ICE not) Parking enforcement, ticketing and/or towing should be routine, and there should be an on-site contact (in person and/or phone) to report violations...

Better still, the signage should say "while charging only". As we have different types of EVs with different charge connectors the problem goes beyond just "ICE in the EV spot", but also to "wrong kind of EV". For instance a Leaf camped out in a spot with only a Tesla EVSE, or a Tesla parked in a spot with only a Rav4EV EVSE.

In my only visit to the SJ convention center I was lucky in that one of the spaces was open (and the other had an ICE car). I left them a polite note to not park there, but then I later thought about myself: should I have come back when my car was charged and moved to another spot? I guess that's the etiquette we need to work through. In the future I'll try to move as soon as is practical for me.

Bill