Parking ticket at LAX

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thait84 said:
Too bad there isn't a valet service you can use for long term parking. I have a 14 day trip coming up and I need the charge to get home from the airport, but I would feel bad taking up resources for 14 days when I really only need 3-4 hours of charge....
I believe this is the way to go. Maybe the ONLY way for long-term (>6 hour) parking.

It needn't cost much more, if anything, as parking lots can block-park you for the bulk of your stay which helps them out. They would need to have their act together to know about different car models, and be sure they don't forget to provide the charge. One question will be; are you going to tell them to charge it NOW, or risk them remembering the day before you get back from a week-long trip?
 
If leaving the LEAF plugged in for an extended period,
set the timer to charge ONLY ONCE a week, and that will
give the LEAF the 5-day window, after charging, to top
up the 12v battery.
 
Or set the timer to charge 20 minutes per day to 80%.
Log on and start 100% charging before you leave the hotel.
Or some variation that works with your travel time.
 
How are these suggestions going to solve the problem of leaving airport charging stations available for other EV's? If I'm gone a week and only need 4 hours charge, I can't be hogging a charger the whole time.

"LEAF drivers are cheap" ? I didn't know that. Maybe the answer then is to make it more expensive to sit in a charger spot than have the "charging service".
I would imagine it's not going to cost much for someone to move your car to their charger station a few hours before you leave.
Sounds like Aladdin at SAN already does that,.. very good to know.
 
A valet service at any place that has charging stations would be awesome, but I don't see the economics of it working out with a bunch of EV drivers mostly there for the free parking.

A multitude of 120v outlets (or even 240v) and BYO-EVSE is a great idea, but also doubtful we'll see anytime soon.

Enforcing the charging spots for active charging only would help to keep the spots open for people who need a charge and are just picking up / dropping off, but I think the other result would be that the charging stations would be hugely under-utilized under this policy. This would be a great policy for a spot with a DC quick charger, but L2 charging is just too slow for this.

From what I've seen (at P1 at least) I think there are enough charging stations and parking spaces around them that with good signage and plug-sharing practice EV drivers should be able to get their free parking AND a charge when they need it.

What LAX really needs is strong signage and posted rules/guidelines that make the following clear:

  • *A "charging space" is any space that can possibly be reached by the EVSEs (all spots in the two rows by the stations will do, especially if we could get some holes in the concrete wall to pass plugs through)
    *You do NOT need to park in a charging space to get the free parking benefit!!!! (I'd imagine this alone would solve most of the LAX problems)
    *DON'T park in a charging space unless you're charging or hope to charge - if you hope to charge leave your charge port open (and perhaps a note)
    *DON'T unplug anyone who's actively charging (except perhaps if it's a Volt or a Prius ;) )
    *When you leave, plug in somebody who has their charge port open, even if you have to unplug somebody else (who's finished charging) to do so. And when unplugging someone who's full, close their charge port.

I think just posting these rules and relying on voluntary compliance would go a long way to keeping the spaces free for charging. But if not, it might also be a good idea to have a small fee for charging (say $5 flat). If you want to charge, pay your $5 either at a machine or to an attendant and get a "charge pass" to put on your dash that entitles you to park in one of the charging spaces (broad sense of charging spaces mentioned above). Park there without a pass and get cited/towed. This would keep out the PHEVs and those just parking near the charging stations because it looks "cute" to have all the LEAFs lined up together.

And naturally, we'd want some official approval from LAX and to resolve this nonsense about ticketing people who get unplugged. But I think even without official approval we could post some homemade signs to educate people.
 
If anyone is passing through parking structure P1 and has a few minutes to kill, can you please try to get the Chargepoint L1 unit with the extension cord attached to it going again??? Arrived in Nashville and got the dreaded GFCI soft trip text.
 
Why should drivers of EVs expect to have free parking?
If we take something for free i don't think we can expect to have it particularly well managed.

Everyone LIKES free stuff, but given that LEAFs, Volts, Teslas etc are not cheap (at least while they were probably acquired new) it would seem that EV drivers don't really need things like free parking. I spent many years where free parking would have made a big difference to me, but at the time I was driving a '74 VW Beetle as I couldn't afford a newer car.

Shaun
 
gbshaun said:
Why should drivers of EVs expect to have free parking?
If we take something for free i don't think we can expect to have it particularly well managed.
Nobody's saying EV drivers should expect to have free parking. But the fact is that at LAX that benefit exists and has for a long time, so the discussion is about how best to make use of it. It's one of the perks of driving an EV in the L.A. area that may be a factor in convincing some to buy a LEAF.

I certainly agree that we can't expect much from LAX staff in the way of managing the charging situation, which is why we EV drivers as a community should take it upon ourselves to do so.
 
fooljoe said:
I certainly agree that we can't expect much from LAX staff in the way of managing the charging situation, which is why we EV drivers as a community should take it upon ourselves to do so.
Good point! Given that most EV drivers do not participate on these boards, should we perhaps be creating a sheet "guidelines for using free charging outlets" ?
Unless someone with authority at LAX really wants to support EV's, I can't see them accepting the missed revenue forever.
 
gbshaun said:
should we perhaps be creating a sheet "guidelines for using free charging outlets" ?
Hence what I wrote 5 posts ago:
fooljoe said:
What LAX really needs is strong signage and posted rules/guidelines that make the following clear:

  • *A "charging space" is any space that can possibly be reached by the EVSEs (all spots in the two rows by the stations will do, especially if we could get some holes in the concrete wall to pass plugs through)
    *You do NOT need to park in a charging space to get the free parking benefit!!!! (I'd imagine this alone would solve most of the LAX problems)
    *DON'T park in a charging space unless you're charging or hope to charge - if you hope to charge leave your charge port open (and perhaps a note)
    *DON'T unplug anyone who's actively charging (except perhaps if it's a Volt or a Prius ;) )
    *When you leave, plug in somebody who has their charge port open, even if you have to unplug somebody else (who's finished charging) to do so. And when unplugging someone who's full, close their charge port.
Of course it'd be nice if we could get someone with official authority at LAX to sanction such a list of guidelines, but if not I don't see why we can't just try to tape something up there ourselves.
 
in a place where they search and/or x-ray hundreds of thousands of people a day and take away bottled water from 80-year-olds, you would think they could police the few parking spots that have EV-charging devices.
 
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