I was sitting in my Prius yesterday in a Walmart parking lot and the person parked beside me opened his door into mine. I was sitting there watching it. I talked to him and he frickin' denied it. It's mostly idiots who shop there. I go there maybe once a month or two when it's either convenient or I can't find the product elsewhere. It just feels like trailer trash at that store. I feel dumber when I leave LOL
As a non plug in prius driver, I guess I'm not sure why plug in stations are needed in commercial lots. I can see it in parking garages where people work, but doesn't seem necessary where people shop. I agree that the spots should not be front and center, although I understand why they are there (proximity to the building for juice). I would suggest that for big box stores like walmart, sam's club, costco, and meijer, the plug in stations be out by the gas station. Like someone said earlier, a plug in spot is like a gas station for a plug in hybrid, so it really doesn't belong in a parking lot. it belongs at a gas station. Just my opinion. between the handicap spots, the expectant mother spots, employee of the month, security vehicle only, charging station, and cart corrals, pretty soon the rest of us regular folk are gonna have to park on the interstate.
I would like to see more chargers at places like big box stores and malls. I can spend an hour in Costco no problem
Charging stations encourage people to shop longer. If I were to own a shop I would welcome the $.50 is costs to charge a car for 3 hours, to have someone shopping for 3 hours. They also receive incentives from the states and some cities.
You mean it is actually possible to get into Costco, buy something, and get out in less than an hour?
I have no problem at all with a store placing a charging station in their parking lot, and doing so wherever they wish. If they wish to enforce these with a stringent towing policy, I'm cool with that too. Stork parking? No problem there either. The cost of these go further than the buck's worth of electricity, after you factor in material and installation, but as stated above there are clearly cost benefits to having these units installed. You usually don't get to be a big, evil, greedy company by wasting money. I'm thinking that stores....especially those operated by large corporations already have a hundred zillion regulations, and so I would probably stop short of elevating ECO parking spaces to that which is accorded to the "Handicap" slots. Besides....probably 75-percent of the "handicapped" parking decals, stickers, placards, etc....are currently in use by people who are either morbidly obese, cardiovascularly frail or both. Frankly, I think that these folks ought to park in the BACK of the parking lot, and be denied the electric scooters that they fill with gedunk at the big-box stores...but you will have to pardon the digression. Let the stores handle the parking spot scoff-laws, and if they refuse politely pop a flare over their upper management---or----vote with your wallet. Leave the low rent stuff to the whiners and complainers of the world.
Talked to my gf's uncle who works for the State of CA and businesses can become LEED certified by installing solar panels, motion sensor lights, and EV chargers among other things...which has tax benefits as well as saving them money in the long term as well as keeping shoppers inside longer to buy more stuff.
Suv parking spots not that close to the shop entry is better for those large Suv drivers They then have to walk every day a bit Because they go shopping And this is better for human health ;-) -Tapatalk
I welcome it, hell I changed my Gym membership strictly because the new Gym has Charge Point stations... I would change my grocery store of choice if I could charge for that 30 minutes I am in shopping. Hell I would even change my Liquer Store of choice if I could charge for that 5 minutes i am inside! 30 minutes actually goes a long way when talking about 220 volt. Then again before the prius I had a 3500 Dually... So I paid my dues in regards to parking in the absolute back of the lots!!!
Ha!!! Excuse me if my heart won't bleed but you don't even need electricity to get home. Be glad - be very glad you haven't tried to live your life driving and ev - where you're expected to smile when people screw you out of the charge stall - yes - even where fully charged PHEV owners will look at you indignantly should you dare ask them to be courteous by moving their car. Sorry but after facing years of this lack of courtesy and seeiming how plug in drivers are being expected to accept this indignance as typical behavior I can't cry you a river of tears anymore. Sent from my SGH-I717R using Tapatalk 2
This is an interesting issue that I'm fighting now with the City of San Rafael. Although some chargers are required to be handicap accessible, there are no state guidelines for what this means, and not likely to be for a year or more. So each jurisdiction gets to interpret this one on their own. Some make at least one charge spot meet all the requirements for a handicap spot, but don't put signage on it. Some put a handicap spot and an EV-only spot side by side in front of the charger, guaranteeing handicap parking but also letting non-handicap EVs get a shot at it, first come, first served. San Rafael refuses to mark the second spot for EVs because they claim (incorrectly) that there is a requirement to reserve one charging station for handicapped. And since the second spot is right next to an entrance, it's often taken by an ordinary vehicle.
I've seen spots with both the EV and Handicapped markings. Does this mean that to use this spot, you must satisfy BOTH criteria (be a disabled person with a car that can be plugged in), or that you must satisfy EITHER of the criteria? In general, you cannot park in a spot with Handicapped markings unless you meet that criteria.
Here is the document that I found and gave to the facilities folks at work. I'm not sure if this is an "official" state guideline, but it looked like one to me so I passed it on, maybe this helps explain it? http://www.documents.dgs.ca.gov/dsa/pubs/policies_rev_01-01-11.pdf Specifically, look at policy #97-03, "Interim Disabled Access Guidelines for Electrical Vehicle Charging Stations". It was last revised 6/5/1997
Tony I think it is a pragmatic thing. Stores / institutions wire their charger stalls as close as possible. No store owner wants to trench & re-asphant for installing 200 feet away and pay for an additional 3 strands of 200 feet of #10 copper wire. Plus, as mentioned above you don't want to have to install 1 charger for non handycap far away and 1 up close just for handicap. See how quickly it becomes a can of worms? Sent from my SGH-I717R using Tapatalk 2
That document explicitly says that an EV spot which satisfies the handicap accessibility requirement need not be restricted to disabled users, since the primary purpose of the spot is defined to be charging, not parking. Kind of like how handicap-accesible restrooms are not restricted to the disabled.
Well here was a pleasant surprise, we pulled into the local Costco, and to my wife's and my surprise there were no monster trucks parked in the "Fuel Efficient" parking spots. We pulled the HyCam right in. Too bad this was the first time in the last year and a half since this Costco opened that this has occurred!
Costco written statement says they no longer support ev's infrastructure. So - in that same vein, all of their Avcon/paddle/legacy chargers are being removed . . . . as well as all of the related sinage. Don't bother writing costco as their minds are already made up. Thank you Costco. Sent from my SGH-I717R using Tapatalk 2
Yeah, that's for the DSA which "has jurisdiction over access compliance requirements for all buildings in California (including schools) that are publicly-funded in whole or in part by the use of state funds ..." AFAIK it's the only state standard, but it is persuasive, to me at least. I'll try it on the City of San Rafael. There used to be a wheelchair-bound guy in San Rafael who would roll down a business street and file ADA lawsuits against every business he found a problem with, which was a lot of them. So maybe they're gun shy.
Good thing I'm not looking for tears nor a bleeding heart from anyone. You may have gotten close if you had said my fun had been spoiled. Yes, I didn't need the electric charge to get home. I don't own a Leaf. But I do get a satisfaction from knowing that I'm using the least amount of gas as I possibly can, even if it means I need to venture into Walmartland. I don't even want the up front parking- I'd even prefer to be out of the mainstream. I just want the ability to use electricity to power my errands and be allowed to do so in peace, without drama. If some folks in Walmartland give some respect to that, so much the better, but not asking for respect. Just live and let live. Our future will change, one charge station at a time.
