[dannycamps]

While I don't live in Philly nor do I travel there on a regular basis, I do live in an area where I get their local news. Apparently the city council voted to overturn a 2007 law which provided designated EV parking spots around the city. The cited reason was lack of EV adoption. Yet another challenge to having an EV in a city I suppose.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...uncil-casts-vote-on-electric-vehicle-parking/

-DJ

 

[Qinsp]

The same mayor who approved EV parking is going to vote to eliminate it. At least they can't blame it on the Republicans. Mayor Kenney is a Democrat.

 

[wordptom]

Just did a quick search for more info on the 2007 law, and it’s not quite what one might think it is...

Apparently, the law wasn’t intended to "provide designated EV parking spots around the city," it was intended to encourage the use of electric vehicles by those who live in areas with on-street parking only (no garages or driveways) by allowing them to spend the money to install curb-side ev charging stations in front of their residences and purchase a permit, and pay an annual fee. The city would then install signs designating the spot as "EV parking only" (not limited to the resident, any ev can use it).

After ten years, it seems only 56 people applied for the permits and signs. Understandable... it appears to have been a very expensive item.

The following is from the application form (available on-line from philapark.org), which requires your name and address and the identification of the electric vehicle you intend to park at that address. The property owner, if not you, must also give permission. Some of what’s included in the application:

$50 Non-Refundable Application Fee made payable to the “Philadelphia Parking Authority”

UPON APPROVAL BY THE PHILADELPHIA PARKING AUTHORITY
After the Philadelphia Parking Authority has determined that an electric vehicle parking space is practical, the applicant must apply to the Department of Licenses & Inspections (L & I) for a curbside electric outlet. Below are code requirements and recommendations from the Department of Licenses & Inspections ...

UPON APPROVAL BY THE DEPARTMENT OF LICENSES & INSPECTIONS
After the installation of a properly functioning Electric Vehicle Charger, the Philadelphia Parking Authority will post the required signs designating the Electric Vehicle Parking Space

REQUIREMENTS & POLICIES REGARDING AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE PARKING SPACE
...No garage, driveway, or other location not in the right of way is available to the applicant for parking of the Electric Vehicle ...

Installation Fee, to be paid upon approval by the Department of Licenses & Inspections:

Center City & University City area: $500 per metered space removal or $250 per 20 feet of space
All other areas of the city: $300 per metered space removal or $150 per 20 feet of space

Yearly Renewal Fee:

Center City & University City area: $150 per year
All other areas of the city: $75 per year

The person to whom an EVPS has been issued shall immediately notify the Philadelphia Parking
Authority, and the EVPS may be immediately revoked, if any of the following events occur:

...The Electric Vehicle is transferred to another owner who does not reside at the address for which the EVPS was established.

The owner of the Electric Vehicle ceases to reside at the address for which the EVPS was established ...

An EVPS should not be treated as a personal parking spot. Anyone with an electric vehicle is allowed to park in the EVPS. Any abuse of the EVPS (i.e., cones, telling other electric vehicle operators they are forbidden to park in the EVPS, etc.) will result in the removal of the space.

 

[Raymondjram]

I know a bit about the City of Philadelphia since I traveled there several times due to my job and working with SunGard (at North Broad Street) between July 2000 and September 2006. The Marriot hotel seen at the right of that picture of the City Hall is where I stayed.

I read the article, and I can only hope that the bill will eliminate future parking space applications, and not eliminate the permits already in use. If the EV owner has spent money installing a charge point and an EVSE, they should remain as such. Revoking their permits will cause a loss of their investments and prevent them from using that equipment if a non-EV takes up that space. The next step is for those EV owners who did put up money to sue the city for reinbursement, transfer that property to the City, and let the City decide what to do.

 

[Mcgsp]

Its a very sad day. Its hard enough, no very hard, no nearly impossible to own EVs in neighborhood like the one's in Philadelphia. In densely packed urban areas there is only on street parking, there are no garages except in very rare instances. You would think it be a no brainer to encourage EVs and PHEVs in neighborhoods like these.

Unfortunately there is a small but loud voracious group of ICE drivers who are jealous and angry that a certain group of drivers get special privileges in Philly's case just 56 in Center City, if there were more EV, PHEV adoption I do not think this would have become the issue that it is. Parking in these neighborhoods is like playing musical chairs, i.e. more cars than spaces and with the removal of a space more anger. But I would have hoped that the Philly understood that in densely urban areas like these every car not emitting pollutants or creating noise through their engine which is a bonus and that any non polluting vehicle is a necessity. As it is Urban areas have the highest concentration asthma and other respiratory ailments due to cars and trucks . It is one of the reasons that Philly encouraged EV spots.

And the bogus argument used by the ICE drivers is that government is playing favorites. Government always plays favorites and has the right to since they own the streets. In Philly's case, they say who can and cannot park on certain streets with residential permit parking, EV parking or excluding certain tonnage of trucks from driving residential neighborhoods. But many ICE drivers are like cigarette smoker, they be damned that anyone can tell them where they can smoke or not smoke, or park.

But in truth I have witnessed this envy and jealousy first hand with people who made the choice to drive expensive ICE vehicles over EVs and therefore fill that they are the entitled one's. In my case though I do not have a special EV spot, i've worked out with my tenant to occupy the spot with her car when I use mine. And even there I have felt the anger and jealousy by some of my neighbors. The funny thing is, it is usually those who own Beemers that are the most put off by this, while the rest of neighborhood says good for him for creating his own spot.

So Philly's new moto, should be, go forth and pollute because we don't give a hoot.

 

[friendlynerd]

I am one of the people with an EV parking spot. They're not taking away the current ones but they have frozen adding any more, and are adding hour restrictions to the ones that already exist. The plan is to make them EV only from 6 pm to 6 am and available to regular cars at other times.

The biggest problem with this is that people who don't have backup gas engines need to charge often, and not everybody has a 9-5 type of job. The PPA doesn't patrol most neighborhoods after 6, so there's virtually nobody to enforce these hours. Finally, during the day is not when parking is all that tight, so it's a mystery who this actually would benefit.

There was no notice given to EVPS holders, no outreach about solutions, nothing. We only know about it ourselves through the grapevine. Given the short notice we had to deal with this, many of us banded together and lobbied city council hard - and the "no" votes we got are a direct result of this. But it still wasn't enough and all signs point to Kenney signing the bill.

Since I have a Volt this will be inconvenient but not earth shattering - those people with pure BEVs are going to suffer. Especially those in busier neighborhoods.

This definitely came about because Squilla's district is extremely dense and extremely wealthy, and a few disgruntled people have his ear. Sadly the rest of city council is afraid to step on other districts' toes, and so the only "no" votes you see are from at-large councilmembers who serve the whole city. One exception is Curtis Jones, my councilman - and I appreciate his willingness to stand up to this nonsense.

NOWHERE in the discussion has the topic of garage-front homes come up - which is crazy because those represent literally thousands of parking spaces stripped from the right-of-way in favor of a private (and usually tax-abated) garage. We EVPS holders are simply an easy target for misplaced outrage and most of our city council is too weak-willed to resist it.

We played by the rules and took advantage of a program that was written to incentivize EV ownership in the city - made investments of $3-4000 to install curbside charge equipment, PLUS the cars...and now they're changing the rules. With only 60 something of us throughout the city, we lack the political capital to keep from being thrown under the bus.

 

[jbakerjonathan]

Does Philadelphia have reporters in the media who could cast embarrassing light on the actions of the council?

 

[friendlynerd]

Yes, and they have - but it remains to be seen what good it will do. The public is not on our side overall...ever seen Parking Wars? The firestorm a parking space can ignite in this city is something to behold. As I said before, the garage front homes are all over and you really don't see the indignation over that situation, which truly IS one that privatizes spaces and removes them from the public. This particular program invokes both the parking jealousy and the "eco warriors gone wild" criticism, a perfect storm of misinformed anger.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Mayor-Kenney-please-veto-this-really-dumb-bill.html

 

[Qinsp]

Yes, and they have - but it remains to be seen what good it will do. The public is not on our side overall...ever seen Parking Wars? The firestorm a parking space can ignite in this city is something to behold. As I said before, the garage front homes are all over and you really don't see the indignation over that situation, which truly IS one that privatizes spaces and removes them from the public. This particular program invokes both the parking jealousy and the "eco warriors gone wild" criticism, a perfect storm of misinformed anger.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Mayor-Kenney-please-veto-this-really-dumb-bill.html

I love that article. In the FIRST sentence it blames the US President for parking in Pennsylvania.

A tip to journalists out there in 2017: If you want to be taken seriously, stop blaming the President for stray dogs and lost TV remotes.

 

[friendlynerd]

To suggest that the current administration and their hostility to environmentally friendly policies has no bearing on the mood of the nation is willfully ignorant.

 

[Qinsp]

To suggest that the current administration and their hostility to environmentally friendly policies has no bearing on the mood of the nation is willfully ignorant.

It is a Democratic Mayor removing the EV parking. Is the US President a Democrat? Or are Russians on the city council?

 

[Barry]

While this is a blow to EV adoption in Philly, I can understand the parking-space-politics behind the new law. The practical effect of the original 10-year old law was to essentially give a designated parking space to the EV owner (not technically, but close to it). The general non-EV public is going to see that as an unfair privilege. It is pretty understandable that this would happen.

Ideally they could find a charging solution that does not create parking jealousy. An electrical outlet at every space on the whole road might do it, if it were affordable to install.

 

[friendlynerd]

I can understand re-evaluating the program moving forward but it was obviously written to incentivize EV ownership by offering a big advantage. To come along and retroactively strip some of the benefits from current space holders, who made substantial investments, is nothing short of a taking.

 

[bjrosen]

I doubt that jealousy had anything to do with killing the law, they killed because it was a complete failure. They only had 56 people applying for the privilege, that's not enough for anyone to notice. It's not surprising that it failed, it's expensive to do the install, they have an annual fee, and the space isn't exclusive. For now EVs are only practical for people who own their own parking space. For apartment dwellers that means either a space in the garage in your building or renting a space in a public garage (but that entails getting the garage owner to allow the installation of an EVSE in a reserved space). Unless a city is willing to install EVSEs themselves, I think I read that Seattle is doing it, there wouldn't be any on street chargers for a long time.

 

[Barry]

If the EV parking policy's only problem were a lack of participants, there would be little reason to roll it back. The problem is that ICE drivers could foresee a day when every house on the block except theirs had an EV parking space in front of it, and it would be extremely difficult for them to park their ICE vehicle anywhere nearby. They felt like this had to be nipped in the bud.

Interestingly, the effect of the new law is that existing spaces will expire as soon as the homeowner moves out, or sells his EV. He can't even replace his EV with a new EV and keep his charging spot that he paid dearly to set up. He also can't sell his house to another EV owner, and let the new owner continue to use the expensive charging equipment and the parking spot. This law is intended not only to prevent new EV spots, but erase existing ones pretty fast, most within a few years.

They definitely should have grandfathered in the existing spaces with the original policies including the right to transfer to a new owner, etc. Would not have been a big deal for such few spaces.

 

[friendlynerd]

Exactly. Having been through it I can say that the amount of bureaucracy and hoops were many - this was not going to spread like wildfire anytime soon. The original bill had a limit to how many reserved spaces could be on any block, including handicapped spaces. So if there were already a couple handicapped spaces on any given block an EVPS would not have been approved to begin with. This moratorium bill is designed to be death by a thousand cuts.

And let me add that anyone who thinks this is not about resentment hasn't lived in Philadelphia.

 

[Qinsp]

I did enjoy the "Special Parking For Fat Cats" whiners in the comments. Uh... I can buy low mile used EV's for $5000 now. Less than the cost of Bling Bling wheels and tires for their SUVs or Pickups.