hill said:
In California now, ONE manufacturer recently had their lacky legislator get the law changed, so that it's actually ILLEGAL to use courtesy plackards (in public parking lots ... not applicable to private lots) ... but I found that courtesy placards was the way several plugin folks used to do, and that worked just fine.
Actually, the new law applies to private lots too- but they can only tow if they have the appropriate signage ("for EV charging only, others will be towed, to reclaim your car call this number, etc."), and very few- if any- do yet. So even a simple "EV charging only" sign is not sufficient to disallow sharing via the placards. I, too, encourage those willing to be unplugged to continue to use them. Alternatively the "newcomer" vehicle can leave a note asking to be plugged in when the first one leaves. This has worked for 15 years, and there's no reason to believe the practice is suddenly obsolete just because there are more EVs on the road now.
However, I agree with a few things that have been said in this thread. These "teething issues" should be expected- yes, some drivers do feel entitled, but many are just new to this and don't realize that there are enough PH/EVs on the road that they may indeed be "blocking" a spot from another. Consider how excited we all still get to see another plug-in "in the wild"- they're just not that common yet. We have a similar issue with Leafs and Volts that park in front of the old SPI chargers, not realizing there are still RAV EVs left that use them. And as frustrating as it is to find the spots occupied, it's very rare that any single public charge will make the difference between getting home or not. Should a driver truly be in that spot, I'm all for being unplugged at any SOC rather than leaving someone stranded, but I realize others may not feel the same.
But as someone pointed out, there's no way of knowing whether those Volts finished charging 5 minutes or 4 hours before. We do need to promote common courtesy in not parking in these spots longer than necessary for charging, but it's worth allowing a little grace too, especially in the beginning. New drivers won't initially know exactly how long their cars will take to charge, and may miscalculate. Not all can receive a text message when charging is complete (and not all that can, know they can), or be able to leave what they're doing at that exact moment. FWIW, the monetized chargers generally charge money for as long as the vehicle is connected, regardless of how long it's actually munching electrons. But for a variety of reasons, most spots are and will remain free for at least several years.
The plug-in population will grow fastest if we as a community are more inclusive, rather than assuming the worst about each other from the start. Those cynical assumptions are what allowed AB475 to pass- GM successfully convinced people that unless they protect us from ourselves, we will randomly unplug each other, target Volts for unplugging, etc. But just as we sorted the sharing protocol as a community of experienced drivers many years ago, we are best equipped to help educate those that join us now. At some locations, we've created notes reminding people not to park at incompatible chargers, or to consider forgoing a charge if it's not needed at the highest traffic locations (LAX is a particular issue until the rest of the retrofitting is done.) It's worth trying something similar in these situations- leave a note welcoming the new person as a fellow EV driver, with a reminder not to park longer than needed, use a placard allowing their car to be disconnected, or at least a phone number. We could print a few sample placards and include one- making it easy to use will increase the likelihood it will. It won't work with everyone, but it will with some...and ideally, they'll turn around and do the same with those new drivers they come across.
NEV, My Leaf is a
