Why no parking reform: cross-pavement charging and dedicated parking spaces for EVs

name_user6

National and local government are trying to encourage EV uptake but the inconvenience of charging in many properties, plus cost of public charging, puts lots of people off. I think there are 2 things that could make a huge difference and am interested to collect thoughts on this- trying to understand if their are good arguments against or it's just inertia.

I live in a street of terraces and semi-detached houses with permitted on street parking. The smallest plots are 5m wide and there is additional parking on streets without houses i.e. there is more than 1 space per household. The parking scheme allows buying up to 3 permits per household, plus a limited number of visitor permits. As a result everyone normally parks in front of their own house, and with the daily musical chairs you can normally shuffle into the space in front of your house. We hold off asking neighbours to move their car so we can charge- I would understand if someone asked us to do this, but get that to a non-EV owner that seems a hassle. We charge our EV with a good-quality rubber mat going across the pavement. BP has installed some pulse chargers in bays that aren't next to houses, so what were previously permit bays are now EV-only. I see those as to everyone's detriment- I'd never use them are they're extortionate, and ICE drivers now cannot use them.

1)  I've seen wheelchair users manage our mat very happily. Kids seem to enjoy going over it on their bikes and scooters. It's actually less of a hazard than uneven rainwater drains etc, but isn't ideal and is a pain to lay out each time. After multiple emails I've learned our council plan to trial charging gullies e.g. Kerbocharge at some unspecified point in the future. These are appropriately installed at the resident's cost. Loads of other councils have already done this and plan to allow them e.g. Milton Keynes. Why is so much time and money being wasted repeating the trial rather than learning from others? 

2) Wouldn't it be better overall to allow each household to reserve the space in front of their own house if they have an EV. I realise this could be a bit sensitive and seem like a grab of public land, but in addition to the private benefit their is also the public benefit of EV uptake. Obviously this isn't as important as a disabled bay, but that does show the precedent of a reserved specific spot for private benefit in the scheme. This seems hugely preferable to carving away spaces for BP? I reckon EV owners would happily pay the additional cost of marking the bay. 

In addition 2 could allow something quite nice: people that don't have cars could have first dibs on buying a permit for the space in front of their house and using it for flower pots, bikes, a chair and tables- essentially anything removable as soon as the permit expires. Seems fairer than having someone else park their 3rd car there?

name_user6

An alternative option for the dedicated bays is  could just be creating a special EV permit category and with EV permit bays put in front of houses with EVs and appropriate charging infrastructure.

So if someone else parks their EV in front of my house, I'd consider it reasonable to ask them to shuffle cars since they would mutually benefit. They would also make an effort to move their car back in front of their house when possible for their own benefit.

In contrast I wouldn't see it as so reasonable to ask someone without an EV to move. They get no benefit from doing this.

Fruitcake

This might be better moved to the general motoring forum rather than the parking forum where the regulars here help people to fight unfair parking charges from unregulated private parking companies.

As for your questions, there are many options for on street charging. I believe in Australia, charging points are fitted to lamp posts and illuminated signs on poles because power is already available at that point.

Printable, flexible solar sheets are available and there is no reason why EVs should not be absolutely covered by solar panels instead of paint.
There are also solar fence-panels, and solar panels set between railway lines, vertical wind turbines along roads, and car park roofs covered in solar panels to name but a few ideas for EV power generation.

Le_Kirk

name_user6 said:

If someone else parks their EV in front of my house, I'd consider it reasonable to ask them to shuffle cars since they would mutually benefit. They would also make an effort to move their car back in front of their house when possible for their own benefit.

If the above happens, where do they plug in? Surely not in your personal private socket where you pay for the electricity?

name_user6

Le_Kirk said:

name_user6 said:

If someone else parks their EV in front of my house, I'd consider it reasonable to ask them to shuffle cars since they would mutually benefit. They would also make an effort to move their car back in front of their house when possible for their own benefit.

If the above happens, where do they plug in? Surely not in your personal private socket where you pay for the electricity?

I wasn't thinking that (although there are proposals for peer-to-peer charging and reimbursement). Instead that they'd be happy to do musical chairs, given the if they're willing to move for me, I'd be willing to move for them if I'd parked in front of their charger.