Tucson Blink Charging Stations on U of Arizona Campus

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krakato

Member
Joined
May 27, 2011
Messages
7
Location
Tucson, AZ
Following is information about the Blink charging stations on the UA campus from UA Parking and Transportation Manager Tom Amparano, who kindly responded to several questions in an email I sent him. Copied below is the email with my questions in bold and his responses in blue:

In the responses you will note that charging will be free at the Blink stations, but you will have to enter the garage and pay parking. Here's a link to the UA PTS webpage with information on parking in the garages, including a map and rates: http://parking.arizona.edu/about/garage_schedule.php#sched0 The 3 garages with Blink stations are: the Sixth Street garage, the Tyndall Avenue garage, and the Second Street garage:


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Dear Tom --

I am a UA faculty and soon I will be a happy owner of a Nissan LEAF. I also participate in an online discussion group for Tucson LEAF owners who have been asking about the charging stations that are described in this article:

“According to UA Parking and Transportation Manager Tom Amparano, the UA will have three electric vehicle chargers stationed around campus and one in the motor pool. These charging stations will be available for the car share vehicles, as well as EV owners from the Tucson community.”http://www.arizona.edu/features/sustainability-efforts-continue-one-green-leaf

I have a few questions about the UA charging stations – especially with respect to how “public” the access will be to the charging equipment:

A couple of weeks ago I went looking for the UA EV Project (Blink) charging stations on the UA campus and found one in the 6th street UA parking garage. It was working and there was a LEAF plugged in -- but there was a Hertz sign on the space and the LEAF was a Hertz rental car parked there. I assume that this is one of the cars available for UA people to rent via the http://www.hertzondemand.com/UniversityofArizona

Q1. Will this charging station also be available for use by LEAF owners at UA and/or people from the Tucson community who are not part of UA – or is it solely for the Hertz program LEAF?


The charging station located at the Sixth Garage is next to a reserved space for the Hertz Connect Leaf. This is a dedicated space for the leaf that is available to staff, students and persons from the community that sign up to rent vehicles on Campus. The parking space next to the reserved space is available to the public and the cable from the Blink Charger will reach the 2nd stall to charge a vehicle. PTS does not charge for the power to charge a vehicle but a person will be charged to park in the garage. Sixth Street Garage permit holders my charge their vehicles at no cost.

Q2. I believe the other two stations are (or will be) located in the 2nd Street Garage and the Tyndall Ave Garage. Is this correct?

This correct. The public will be able to access the charging stations located in the 2nd Street & Tyndall Parking Garages. Again, there will be no cost for the power, but there will be a cost to park in the garages with the exception of the permit holders for those garages.

Q3. Are these additional charging stations in operation yet? If so, who can use them : UA people who park in them, UA people who have a parking permit for some other location (like I do), or anyone in the Tucson Community (like my fellow LEAF owners)?

All charging stations on Campus are currently operational. The charging stations at Tyndall and 2nd Street garages are designated for "Public Use". The charging station at Tyndall Garage is, however; down for a couple of days waiting for a part to fix the wireless communication unit.

Q4. If the latter, how will those needing a charge gain access in and out of the garage? Presumably, us LEAF owners will have a Blink RFID card that we can swipe to access the charging equipment itself, but will we also have to pay to park in the garage while it is charging?

If you park in a garage to gain access to a charging station you will need to pay for parking unless you are a permit holder in that garage.

Q5. Lastly, will there be a penalty for owners of non-electric vehicles who park in the spaces reserved for electric vehicle charging. (Apparently this is a problem in other communities with public charging stations.)

There is currently no penalty for parking in an electrical vehicle parking space. As the demand for these charging locations increases, our office will reevaluate making these spaces reserved for Electric Vehicles Charging Only and citing violators. PTS will also consider adding additional charging stations on Campus based on our experience over the next several months.

The charging station located at the UA Motor Pool is managed by FM/UA Motor Pool. I understand that there will be a public charging capability there. Please Call Randy Livingston at UA Motor Pool for more information at 621-5124. Thanks
 
IMPORTANT CLARIFICATIONS ON UA EV CHARGING STATIONS:

I just learned some additional info about the Level 2 UA Blink charging stations

(1) The extra slot in the Sixth Street Garage (next to the Hertz rental) will no longer be available for public access charging in mid-August when the semester starts. It will then be used solely for the UA EV rental fleet which is expanding. Tom at PTS said that they may actually park a Volt in there at some point (!).

(2) The two UA garages with Blinks that are available for public access are: Tyndall Avenue and Second Street. (Note that the locations of these garages are NOT mapped correctly on the BLINK website map -- I will put together a proper map with the right locations and post it here later.)

(3) The Tyndall Ave garage is on the west side of campus. The Blink there is offline at the moment, but should be back up next week. At present the Tyndall Ave entrance to the garage is closed due to construction and resurfacing on Tyndall Ave, but you can still enter the garage from Euclid Avenue. I was told that the Blink is on the Tyndall Ave side of the garage, near the Tyndall entrance ( but I haven't checked this out personally yet).

(4) The Second Street garage is just to the north of the UA Student Union -- it is entered via 2nd St which is a one way street going east (access it by going south down Mountain from Speedway and turning left on Second. I was told that the Blink is near the 2nd St entrance (but I haven't checked this out personally yet).

(5) There are no time restrictions for use of the parking spaces at the charging stations yet, but very soon there will be signs posted about this. (Tom at PTS emphasized to me that the spots will be for short-term charging only, and are not meant for people to park and charge all day while at work.)
 
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