First Public Charger in San Diego 6/16 Show up to Support!

[electricfuture]

Tuesday is when I was there. No signs yet.

 

[walterbays]

Tuesday is when I was there. No signs yet.

Someone mentioned City Council action needed to pass an EV parking ordinance. They may be waiting on that before putting up signs.

It could be important for the San Diego EV community to have input into the parking ordinance, to make sure it works. I'd contact my council member, but I really am not sure what to ask for, and I know that long time EV enthusiasts have thought a lot about these issues and have worked out some protocols.

At Balboa Park there is one EVSE serving one parking space, except for the handicapped spaces. In the future there may be more locations that have one EVSE serving two or more parking spaces, and when one car is filled someone else could move the plug.

Should both/all such spaces be marked for EV only? Should an EV continue to park in the space after its charge is complete? What if the driver cannot reasonably return to the car at just the right time to move to a regular parking space? Is it worse for a PHEV (which is only using the charging station for gas mileage enhancement) to camp out in a charging space? Or is a fully charged EV just as bad?

How is parking enforcement supposed to know who to ticket and tow? Sure, now there are only the Leaf and the Volt... except for all those limited edition previous generation EV's, and except for all the conversion EV's. And except for the Mitsubishi, and... And more models all the time - I hope. Although the state hasn't yet seen fit to send me my EV parking decal, I think that decal is really the only basis that parking enforcement should rely on.

If EV parking should be only for EV use "while charging" how is parking enforcement supposed to know whether or not all the different EV models are charging?

I'm sure there are many other questions that ought to be addressed in drafting a good EV parking ordinance. And I'm sure that an ordinance alone won't solve all problems; social norms among EV drivers will be at least as important. But if we have a chance to make a parking ordinance work better, we ought to do so. (Sorry, I guess by "we" what I mean is "you"; as I said I don't believe that I have all the answers.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

I'm very confused by this thread.

Signs were posted sometime between Tuesday 6/28 and Wednesday morning 6/29 behind the Science Museum.
Here they are:

Have they been removed?

 

[mwalsh]

I'm very confused by this thread.

Signs were posted sometime between Tuesday 6/28 and Wednesday morning 6/29 behind the Science Museum.

If that's the sign, it's insufficient. It needs to be marked "EV Charging only. All others will be cited and towed". Then it needs to cite the local ordinance. And if they don't have a local ordinance, they need to get one.

 

[davewill]

Well, that's disappointing. Without verbiage (at least an "only") specifying that non-EVs can't park there, those aren't going to do near as much good as they should.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

Exactly.
The signs say "There's an EV Charger" "Right, you know.. there"

If you didn't know what the Blink was, you might not be enlightened by these signs, which are a fuel pump with two-prong plug.. maybe a gasoline pump that needs to be plugged into a 120v outlet? Hard to say.

With this signage, I would be hard pressed to even scowl at an ICE that parks there. There's nothing to say not to, any more than if there was a birdseed vending machine at the head of the parking space.

 

[bsavall]

Exactly.
The signs say "There's an EV Charger" "Right, you know.. there"

If you didn't know what the Blink was, you might not be enlightened by these signs, which are a fuel pump with two-prong plug.. maybe a gasoline pump that needs to be plugged into a 120v outlet? Hard to say.

With this signage, I would be hard pressed to even scowl at an ICE that parks there. There's nothing to say not to, any more than if there was a birdseed vending machine at the head of the parking space.

I like the birdseed vending machine idea; that may just have wings!

Seriously tough, those signs probably cost the city $500 each installed, for what purpose? Wouldn't have broke the bank to include four extra letters "ONLY". The spots should be for EV's and should not be based on state of charge as there is no easy way to enforce that. Decals are an easy way for agencies to enforce EV only parking if and when it occurs; if you have a decal, you can park there. Which of course means $500 to remove the old signs and another $500 to install the new signs.

 

[OilFreedom]

If that's the sign, it's insufficient. It needs to be marked "EV Charging only. All others will be cited and towed". Then it needs to cite the local ordinance. And if they don't have a local ordinance, they need to get one.

+1, but it's a step in the right direction. Too bad the first step was such a tiny step. Signange without teeth (tow, citation, etc.) will be ignored by many ICE drivers -- especially when the park is busy and parking is hard to find.

 

[BnBinSD]

How unfortunate they didn't use the existing verbiage that already exists for signage on DMV's website re Section 22511 - http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22511.htm

That section does however, require the EV to have DMV's ZEV decal, so maybe that's why they didn't do that. Would have liked the sign to display something like this:

________________________________
No Parking
Any Time
Except
Zero-Emission Electric Vehicles
(While Charging)

Tow Away Zone
California Vehicle Code section 22511
Unauthorized vehicles not displaying valid zero-emission vehicle decal identifications will be towed away at owner’s expense. Towed vehicles may be reclaimed at
(address)
or by calling nnn-nnn-nnnn
_____________________________________
FYI re the distribution of Blink RFID cards, I received an email from a support rep that they're being sent out alpha by last name. Mine starts with "N", requested mid-May, and still waiting.

 

[DaveEV]

FYI re the distribution of Blink RFID cards, I received an email from a support rep that they're being sent out alpha by last name. Mine starts with "N", requested mid-May, and still waiting.

Still waiting here - last name "R", pending since April 19.

 

[BnBinSD]

FYI re the distribution of Blink RFID cards, I received an email from a support rep that they're being sent out alpha by last name. Mine starts with "N", requested mid-May, and still waiting.

Still waiting here - last name "R", pending since April 19.

Ha, I can visualize their distribution process -

They have a sweet, 93-yr old lady who comes once a week for one-hour, when she remembers to go in, and she then writes each letter by two-finger typing on a Windows-98 PC with 16MB of RAM, slowed by arthritis. This achieves the amazing output of around 4 RFID cards mailed per week!

 

[LKK]

I visited Balboa Park a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately it was Free Tuesday and so the place was packed. I was interested in using the new chargers, but alas, all the spaces were taken with gas powered cars, well there was one Volt, but all of the rest of the spots were filled with ordinary ICE cars. I have a couple of suggestions to improve this situation:

1. There were no signs excluding ICE cars. They should put up signs saying these spots are only for EVs.

2. The spots were right in front of the Aerospace museum, thus making it attractive for those folks who feel their convenience is more important then the needs of EV drivers. In the future, it may make more sense to put the EV chargers in the back of the lot, thus making them less attractive to people who park in handicapped and EV spots.

 

[jcesare]

In the future, it may make more sense to put the EV chargers in the back of the lot, thus making them less attractive to people who park in handicapped and EV spots.

While I agree placement could have been better, the ADA required that one spot had to be a handicap spot. They are usually the closest to the building. The park is on the right track allowing an extra spot next to the handicap one, that allows the EVSE to be shared with a non handicapped spot. The park runs by committe so everything is a slow process. Adding parking enforcement capabilities requires a city council vote.

 

[BnBinSD]

I just sent this email to the park -


I own a Nissan Leaf, the all-electric car, so was thrilled when the Blink chargers were installed there. I live in Alpine, so while I can just make the approx 70-mile round trip on a single charge, knowing I could plugin there for an hour or so would have made the visit less stressful.

However, I've found, as have other electric car drivers, that the charger parking spaces are frequently being occupied by gas-powered cars, so there's no way to charge up! This could be easily rectified by installing signs indicating the spaces are for electric vehicles only, and the CA DMV's Vehicle Code section 22511 already exists. I hope this issue can be corrected so that myself and other can have access to these chargers when they're needed and families arrive from long distances and are depending on being able to charge in order to make the trip.

I'm including text for a possible sign that uses VC 22511:


No Parking
Any Time
Except
Zero-Emission Electric Vehicles
(While Charging)

Tow Away Zone
California Vehicle Code section 22511
Unauthorized vehicles not displaying valid zero-emission vehicle decal identifications will be towed away at owner’s expense. Towed vehicles may be reclaimed at
(address)
or by calling nnn-nnn-nnnn

 

[jcesare]

I just sent this email to the park -


I own a Nissan Leaf, the all-electric car, so was thrilled when the Blink chargers were installed there. I live in Alpine, so while I can just make the approx 70-mile round trip on a single charge, knowing I could plugin there for an hour or so would have made the visit less stressful.

However, I've found, as have other electric car drivers, that the charger parking spaces are frequently being occupied by gas-powered cars, so there's no way to charge up! This could be easily rectified by installing signs indicating the spaces are for electric vehicles only, and the CA DMV's Vehicle Code section 22511 already exists. I hope this issue can be corrected so that myself and other can have access to these chargers when they're needed and families arrive from long distances and are depending on being able to charge in order to make the trip.

I'm including text for a possible sign that uses VC 22511:


No Parking
Any Time
Except
Zero-Emission Electric Vehicles
(While Charging)

Tow Away Zone
California Vehicle Code section 22511
Unauthorized vehicles not displaying valid zero-emission vehicle decal identifications will be towed away at owner’s expense. Towed vehicles may be reclaimed at
(address)
or by calling nnn-nnn-nnnn

FYI This will require action by the city council not the park.

 

[TonyWilliams]

I took my son to the Air and Space museum today. Got about 3 hours of juice, with one of the few parking spots available in the whole Balboa park.

I did my duty to educate the unwashed masses with my informational flyer affixed to the numerous ICE's parked in the spots.

 

[walterbays]

I did my duty to educate the unwashed masses with my informational flyer affixed to the numerous ICE's parked in the spots.

Maybe San Diego Leafers could get together and make an educational video: "EVing the gas pumps" to explain it. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=89621#p89621

 

[Brentster]

I finally got my Blink card in the mail last week and visited the chargers at Balboa park yesterday to try them out. The lot has half full and 2 of the charging spaces were ICE'd but the rest were wide open. I charged for about an hour before heading home.

Not sure if this was mentioned before, but there are small metal signs posted at each space with a gas pump symbol with "EV" inside of it. They're 8 feet high and blue. No signage indicating that the spaces are for EVs only though.

Just waiting for more of these bad boys to show up around the city.

 

[vatavian]

I was leaving San Diego the night before this event. Fortunately I was able to get a look at these new Blink devices on my way to the airport. They do look nice, but it seems a bit unfriendly that there is no way to charge if you do not already have one of their cards. It also would have been nice if the map on the device showed other nearby charging locations, whether they were in use, and maybe even allowed a reservation.

I went ahead and optimistically signed up for a (free) card right away. It just arrived. The packaging was clever. It was not hard to register the card's number on the Blink site, but really they should have taken care of that step before mailing out the card. We are hoping today is the day we are finally able to order our Leaf. When we have our Leaf, I hope there will be a Blink station close enough for us to try it out.

 

[smkettner]

It also would have been nice if the map on the device showed other nearby charging locations, whether they were in use, and maybe even allowed a reservation.

I called Blink about another issue and asked about where to click for a reservation. Reservations are not available yet. I expressed my dissapointment as if I drive 90 miles to SD I would need an all day charge and could not start my day of fun until I was connected.