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Citizen complaint of the day: ICE'd up EV charging stations in East Boston
By adamg on Thu, 03/09/2023 - 2:11pm
A disgusted citizen files a 311 complaint about a gas hog from Connecticut whose owner has managed to defeat the reason Boston's been busy installing EV-charging stations in municipal parking lots, like the one on London Street in East Boston:
Not electric car illegally parked on a spot that states only for electric cars while charging for maximum 4 hours. These charging stations are constantly blocked by not electric cars
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Comments
Shocker!
Watts the matter with this jerk!!
Yeah!
He should go ohm to Connecticut. And thank you Adam, for discharging your mandate to keep us updated on current events.
I see what you did there
Ohn, discharge and current.
Very clever.
Even ...
Even politically charged ones like these.
Done with intention
Probably part of a publicity campaign to make EVs outsider fringe vehicles. Or perhaps merely a wagon full of douche.
This is maddening because at
This is maddening because at least when someone is in the spot for too long it still shows up as occupied in the app. When someone does this it shows up as unoccupied but then you get there and it's filled.
It doesn't help that inany communities the city/town decides that's an awesome place to park their non electric cars and trucks too. I've been caught off guard at many places.
Luckily I have a hybrid so don't depend on these being open but if it makes me think twice about going fully electric. It should be like anything else, either ticket or tow to make a point.
Tow 'em
This should be an automatic tow. I'm not generally a fan of predatory towing companies, but give them a bounty for each legit tow of a non-plug-in hybrid/electric car parked in such a space.
I'd say tow but I also would
I'd say tow but I also would be curious why they don't paint the spot. In Chelsea we have two places in public you can charge and the city painted both green in addition to the signs. It makes you really notice the spot is different and would make complaining about being towed much harder
An EV parked at a gas station
An EV parked at a gas station pump would be automatically towed. Why aren't gas powered vehicles automatically towed from EV charging stations? Is EV charging a free service?
poor analogy
any car "parked" at a gas station pump would be automatically towed. sure, if you leave a Tesla at the pump while you go inside to buy a scratch ticket, they might give you a weird look. but leave a F350 at the pump and walk off the lot, and they'll tow you.
You'd think
It could only be towed in this bassackwards city if there were towing signs and a contract with a tow company.
I had one situation at a business and one at home where someone with no connection to us parked a car on the property. At home it was a house with one small barely-one-car driveway, and at the business it was a place with no parking and a tiny walk in front of the entrance onto which someone managed to put a car. Both times, cops said they wouldn't tow it because it wasn't signed as no parking/violators will be towed, private property is the owner's problem, and to call private tow companies. Private tow companies say they'll only tow with a contract and signage. Called cops back and said what tow company said, reiterated especially in the case of the business that it wasn't even any sort of parking/driving area, was literally a yard/walk, and why tf couldn't the city tow someone for driving onto a private off-road area uninvited? I asked the cop if that meant I was free to do what I wished since it was left on property I was renting. Nope, I'd be charged with any property damage I caused.
I guess what I learned from this though is that if you have a car you're looking to park, you can feel free to park anywhere that isn't a city street and doesn't have signage, and you can't be towed. Go park your car on a Northeastern basketball court, the MFA's circular drive, someone's lawn -- none of these places have signage and a tow contract.
Because gas stations have
Because gas stations have employees who notice an improperly parked car at a gas pump, while EV charging stations are unattended.
Sometimes charging is free and sometimes there's a charge.
I usually don't respond to
I usually don't respond to anony-mouse people but whoever you are you make a good point.
If we got serious about this
If we got serious about this stuff there's an easy solution... When they put in new stations or retrofit old ones there could be a sensor on the station that would send up an alert if it was occupied for more than X minutes but the charging isn't plugged in.
It could be as simple as a detector that noticed a large object in the spot without being plugged in. There could be a fixed cam built in that shows the license plate area. There's lots of options.
They could also simply just treat the spots like all the other spots in their lots. For instance if the spot is in the town hall lot. If you park in the Mayors spot I doubt your car would still be there when you got back the next morning. So just treat it the same.
I agree on the towing.
I agree on the towing.
EV is sometimes a free service. Most are attached to a larger network like Chargepoint that charges your credit card when you tap it and plug in. There are a sizeable number of free spots though. For instance there are government grants connected to installing these at municipal sites so it's not uncommon to find random free stations at city halls and libraries. In some cases you can even park there without paying a meter in metered lots etc. Those are the ones most likely to be plagued by blue plate (government issued plates) or people like this car here.
Then there are other free stations that are sponsored by businesses. Encore Casino for instance. Some businesses use the lure of free charging to encourage people to come use their services or as a way to showcase their own values etc.
I personally have a 2016 hybrid with a small slow charging battery. So to be perfectly honest with you I often just deal with the free spots but I'll use the apps to find one and then it's an excuse for me to walk more. I'll park in the electric spot instead of the spot right out front and walk the extra few blocks. That's why it gets annoying when the spot is filled because the app shows it's open. It doesn't just take up the spot but it also draws people in who think the spot is open and in many ways causes more traffic as people come and then see the spot isn't actually open.
Typical 311..
Posted 11 hours ago with no response.. If I had a nickel for each time the City closed a 311 post with an "Area Clear" message days after the report, I'd be the richest guy on UHub!
I wonder if Zipcar faces the same issues?
And, if so, how they deal with it?
ZipCar is on private property
ZipCar is on private property and as long as you have proper signage, you can tow immediately. I'm not sure what the regulations are for municipal lots and towing, I would imagine you would need to call 911 and then they can initiate a tow, like when someone blocks your driveway.