Designated Residential EV Parking Spot?

[RonDawg]

Having your municipality declare the space in front of your home for "EV's only" may give you legal recourse against non-plug-ins that park in front of your home, but what if a neighbor gets a BEV or PHEV for themselves? Or one of their visitors decides to park there with one? Or what about your own visitors who may not own a BEV or PHEV but need to park there for whatever reason? Or what if your BEV/PHEV is in the shop for some reason and the dealership gives you an ICEV as a loaner? A vengeful neighbor might just call the police on you as revenge for "reserving" a spot.

Your neighbor with the designated handicap zone, unless it specifically says it's for that particular resident only, could face the same issue with another neighbor or a visitor who also has a handicap placard.

 

[smkettner]

Is there NO assigned parking whatsoever? Such as a garage or carport?

 

[MichaelBornstein]

I am amazed that no one has brought up the "trip" hazard of having a power cord draped over the public sidewalk. The few times I have tried to plug-in at a hotel, they are always careful to make sure that the cord doesn't cross an area where someone might walk and then trip, fall ,(and sue!!!). The OP would be liable for damages, and his homeowners insurance might refuse to cover it if he created the hazard.

 

[GlennD]

I am amazed that no one has brought up the "trip" hazard of having a power cord draped over the public sidewalk. The few times I have tried to plug-in at a hotel, they are always careful to make sure that the cord doesn't cross an area where someone might walk and then trip, fall ,(and sue!!!). The OP would be liable for damages, and his homeowners insurance might refuse to cover it if he created the hazard.

At the city I retired from the AV people duct taped down all of the cables so as to not create a trip hazard. It made tear down harder but at least no one tripped on the cables.

 

[RonDawg]

I am amazed that no one has brought up the "trip" hazard of having a power cord draped over the public sidewalk. The few times I have tried to plug-in at a hotel, they are always careful to make sure that the cord doesn't cross an area where someone might walk and then trip, fall ,(and sue!!!). The OP would be liable for damages, and his homeowners insurance might refuse to cover it if he created the hazard.

At the city I retired from the AV people duct taped down all of the cables so as to not create a trip hazard. It made tear down harder but at least no one tripped on the cables.

Not practical in an outdoor public environment though. The resulting "hump" albeit small is still its own trip hazard and might attract unwanted attention from the local code enforcement people. Plus I would NEVER leave a plug-in EVSE just laying there in a public space unconnected to a car....that's basically an invitation for theft.

 

[davewill]

The OP never said anything about running a cord over a sidewalk. No need to hijack the thread assuming problems not in evidence.

 

[MichaelBornstein]

The OP said: I currently live in a townhouse with street parking and my charging cable can only reach my car if I'm parked in front of my house.

Davewill - how can the cord get from the house to the street without crossing some sort of pedestrian pathway. Since the OP lives in a townhouse, I presume that he doesn't live in a countryside type place where people walk in the street rather than a pedestrian walkway.

The post was about the practicality of designated on street parking for EV's to allow the use of personal charging cords. My response was that it was impractical to run a cord from a house to the street.

An alternative would be to petition the city to place neighborhood charging stations, but we all know that without vigorous enforcement,, they will all be ICE'd in short order.

 

[redLEAF]

Read through this thread quickly ... OP is in a tough spot that many other potential EV owners might be in; one of my son's lives in an apartment complex without 'designated' parking and its always first come first served as far as where the residents park, I believe property management would be open to designated EV spots but only if there was enough interest. Also, at times he might be away for a month at times so he needs to leave his car keys so they can move his car for snow removal (lives in the NE) so you have that as well.

The laws on this vary a lot by municipality and will take time to adjust as more EV's are on the road --- in many of the new high rises around Chicago they actually are advertising EVSE spaces as an option (of course some parking spaces are big bucks anyway so probably more so for a Tesla or i8 owner than someone with a LEAF) so at least some housing options for EV owners are becoming available.

As far as the problem at hand though; sounds like this is a public street and NOT parking controlled by the HOA anyway so if he doesn't have close by access to public charging as an option when his space gets used by another he's out of luck. I actually ran into this when my driveway needed replacing and I was able to charge at a L2 station close by at a community college; it wasn't close enough to walk to but was handy enough to use for a few days straight and I'd arrange a ride.

Just like planning your trips based on EV range, one of the first things that potential EV owner's need to answer is do you have a means to charge the car and possibly a Plan B when that's not available.

 

[MichaelBornstein]

Just like planning your trips based on EV range, one of the first things that potential EV owner's need to answer is do you have a means to charge the car and possibly a Plan B when that's not available.

I agree...As for plan B, I just realized how vulnerable I am. I have two EV's that I charge in my garage overnight, Every few years they resurface the street in front of my house and we are forced to park on the street, some distance from the house. The nearest L3 charger is at the Nissan dealer 7 miles away. L2 chargers are a similar distance away. Essentially, I have no plan B other than to make sure that my BEV is fully charged before any street work is performed.

As I stated in other posts it is questionable if one should buy a BEV without a stable place to charge, either at work or at home. Public chargers are nice, but one shouldn't hog them for repetitive overnight charging.

 

[davewill]

The OP said: I currently live in a townhouse with street parking and my charging cable can only reach my car if I'm parked in front of my house.

Davewill - how can the cord get from the house to the street without crossing some sort of pedestrian pathway. Since the OP lives in a townhouse, I presume that he doesn't live in a countryside type place where people walk in the street rather than a pedestrian walkway. ...

Since we don't know how his property is situated I don't know and neither do you.

Anyway, if he ever actually managed to get the parking designated for his EV charging use, getting permission to do a proper install of an EVSE at the curb would seem to be simple in comparison.

 

[billg]

OP, assuming you are using the included L1 EVSE, why not get a good, heavy duty extension cord? That should open up several more parking spots, and you will only use it when you need it, and it sounds like that's infrequent. Of course, you run the risk of aggravating your neighbors by taking "their" parking spot.