Public charger "protocol"

[rickinAZ]

I volunteer a three times a week at the Mayo Clinic. I transport visitors around the 400+ acre campus on a three-row golf cart. Mayo has sixteen charging stations: twelve employee ones requiring cardkey access to a parking garage and four public chargers where anyone can access them.

The employee chargers consistantly demonstrate responsible use: If you park there invariably you are charging your vehicle. The public ones are a weird free-for-all. And, on any given day they are all full. I'm a curious sort, so I've made a habit of monitoring the visitors habits. On average. there is always one ICE vehicle occupying a charger spot. I don't know if this is out of naivete or some sort of Luddite protest. But...even more interesting is the behavior of the EVs. More than half the time, there are two EVs simply parking, not charging, and taking up all but one of the remaining slots. I've even seen EVs, down to the last gasp of power, after making it to the charging station only to find them full, and then have to be towed away because two spots are EV "parkers".

Is this our future? To be fair, there is no sign that says "EV charging only", but wouldn't that be obvious? Once EVs become more common this will become a bigger issue. I know that there is no honor amongst thieves, but isn't there honor amongst the EV's brethren? And...why are the employees so well-behaved compared to the public? Is it because they know each other?

Has anyone else witnessed this type of thing?

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[Hercules]

You’re probably right. Hence why this will never take off fully. I bought a diesel…

 

[lindaspins]

I don't generally use public chargers, but these are pretty common issues. I've seen some charging courtesy cards (try looking on Etsy?) that explain basic charger courtesy, some of those might be helpful!

 

[Swisskidd]

While not really paying attention to charging stations - I've witnessed such behavior ample times at gas stations. People park at the pump, go inside to get a snack and then drive off; no fuel or gasoline purchased. Down here, it has become widespread enough, where stations are posting notices at the pumps.
The 'Protocol' used to be simple: Common Courtesy - sadly it has become a rare commodity.

 

[sherpaJL]

What is a public charger?

 

[The Last Cowboy]

Back when courtesy chargers were installed in public places, it was to encourage EV use. If we listen to politicians, we were told that by now charging stations would be a lot more common than they are now. Billions spent, and next to nothing to show for it.

If the government (and it doesn't matter what party/side/belief has the majority) gets out of the car business we will all be better off.

I would be willing to bet that an owner of a 100% EV would have an issue with a PHEV, like a 4Xe, taking a charging space, especially when they really need one. As more apartment dwellers buy EVs, the issue will become worse.

The answer is more charging stations, but it's not as easy as it seems. For some reason there seems to be a huge reliability issue with them. But delving into that is an entirely different discussion that would take up many pages and have people getting their feelings hurt.

As for the hospital parking lot where you work, employee parking is fairly static, a certain number of workers at any given time. Hospitals everywhere are notorious for parking issues, what with patients, family, vendors, various other visitors, and increasing number of patients every year as the huge boomer generation becomes elderly and they have more and more health issues.

My wife has worked at several hospitals as a nursing director, parking has always been an issue at every one of those hospitals.

So, all of that having been said, the only way I would have an EV is to have a charger at home and the EV would be a third vehicle for running around town in. But, since I drive so little as is, the buy in cost for an EV and a charging system just doesn't work for me.

 

[rickinAZ]

What is a public charger?

A charger accessible to anyone as opposed to private ones, like in Mayo's employee garage, where you need special cardkey access to get to them. You still have to pay to use public chargers. Basically, all the ones you can "see" in everyday life are public. You generally can't see private ones - they are locked away.

 

[Vanburi]

Worst I've seen is an EV parked in a handicap charging spot with no tags or placard.

 

[The Last Cowboy]

While not really paying attention to charging stations - I've witnessed such behavior ample times at gas stations. People park at the pump, go inside to get a snack and then drive off; no fuel or gasoline purchased. Down here, it has become widespread enough, where stations are posting notices at the pumps.
The 'Protocol' used to be simple: Common Courtesy - sadly it has become a rare commodity.

I see that all the time, because it's in the shade.

Or they park at the pump, go inside, piss, wander around and buy some snacks and something to drink, wander the the counter, buy some lotto tickets, then spend their last $4.53 out of their $20 bill on gas, then fianlly waddle out to their car 20 minutes later and put their 1.5 gallons in.

 

[rickinAZ]

People park at the pump, go inside to get a snack and then drive off; no fuel or gasoline purchased.

You are right. This is very much the same thing.

 

[rickinAZ]

I haven't heard of instances of charger-rage, but it's coming.

 

[The Last Cowboy]

What's happening a lot around here is that meth tweakers are cutting of the charging cable to recycle the copper. The news however reports it as "vandalism".

Every once in awhile you'll see a lifted, coal rolling bro-dozer parked in an EV spot, you know the ones, Carolina lean, purple and lime green accents on everything. They think that they're being pretty cool. But hey, we should all applaud and respect peaceful protests, right?

 

[BXFXJeep]

This EV thing exposes how so many people are a__holes, this happens a lot in "polite" Canada.

It's worse at the government run chargers, and more than half of the government chargers don't even work, because of voltage issues.

Then there is the ongoing issue of abuse where people are damaging the chargers by driving over the wires, wires getting hooked on vehicles and ripping off, some people do not even seem to know how to return the connector to the holder.

Damaged government chargers take months to fix, private companies don't bother fixing damaged chargers, my guess they got government money to install, but maintenance comes out of their own pockets, and these things are extremely expensive.

 

[BXFXJeep]

I haven't heard of instances of charger-rage, but it's coming.

That is exactly what the people running the show wants, anything to create conflict is a good thing.

 

[TheBirdie72]

Sometimes I think about parking in the EV spots at work just to mess with a couple of the people that I dislike and who I know regularly use them, but then I think better of it… and just park in the visitor spots closer to the door anyway…

I’ll remember to put my used chewing gum inside those charging plugs one of these days…

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