Supercharges and ICE occupancy

Joules Verne · Jul 26, 2015

I'm not a Tesla owner yet, but I'm beginning to think like one.

I was taking the family into NYC, driving down from the Boston area. As I'm cruising along, I was thinking: if I had a Tesla, could I make this trip?

I'm on Route 15 in Greenwich CT, when I decide to make a pit-stop at the highway service center to fuel-up the car (mobile station) and humans (subway sandwich). I then spotted that they had some Superchargers, and thought... AWESOME, I could make this trip - no problem!

Except, all but one of the charging stations were occupied with ICE vehicles.
<insert record scratch sound here>
What-wha-what?

Not cool.

If I were dependent on those Superchargers to get to where I needed to go, I would have been pretty ticked-off.

Heck, I'm not even in the EV club, but found myself taking pictures of the offense.

Anyway, I feel for you guys.

tom66 · Jul 26, 2015

Yea, it's pretty crap.
Those spaces do have what appears to be a 15 minute time limit for non-EV charging so at least there's that.

Perhaps one solution will be for electronic parking barriers to be installed (like these). Bonus, will be able to watch people try to "dive" for the spot with bad result! These barriers will automatically lower when a Tesla or other compatible vehicle is near. Model S has Homelink so that could potentially be used automatically?

Joules Verne · Jul 26, 2015

The signs say
"15 Min Parking. Except While Charging"
"45 Min Vehicle Charging"

I took that to mean the limits applied to Teslas, not non-EV parking limits.

Love the electronic barrier idea, although if cars do get pummeled while diving, it could result in the charging station being unavailable for even longer.

jeffro01 · Jul 26, 2015

Yeah I'd be pretty upset if I needed a space and it was ICE'd... I see this as being a bit of an issue in a few places that will require Tesla to start towing non-Tesla's.

Jeff

ecarfan · Jul 26, 2015

@JoeElectric, glad you are thinking like a Tesla owner! The next step is to become one [emoji3]
The parking/charging rules at the Supercharger sites vary by location and are determined by the lease arrangement that Tesla was able to work out with the site owner or administrative authority. There are a few Superchargers where ICEing can be a problem. In California I have never had a problem with ICEing, but some people have.

Joules Verne · Jul 26, 2015

ecarfan said:
@JoeElectric, glad you are thinking like a Tesla owner! The next step is to become one [emoji3]

Indeed.

Hanging on the sidelines a bit longer, waiting to see what trickled-down goodness the X R&D brings to the S. We already got the 90 and the D. Keeping my fingers crossed for 360 degree cameras.

rlang59 · Jul 26, 2015

Joe Electric said:
The signs say
"15 Min Parking. Except While Charging"
"45 Min Vehicle Charging"

I took that to mean the limits applied to Teslas, not non-EV parking limits.

Love the electronic barrier idea, although if cars do get pummeled while diving, it could result in the charging station being unavailable for even longer.

Nope, anyone can park in those spots for 15 mins.

tga · Jul 26, 2015

Not to defend the ICE'ers, but Greenwich is a tiny rest area (southbound is smaller than northbound), so parking is at a premium, and most people are making a quick stop (run in, hit the bathroom, get a snack), so the delays would be minimal. Well within the 15 min the (unclear) signs seem to allow.

I haven't been to Greenwich since the SC's were installed - are these close to the building? That wouldn't help.

Contrast that with, say, the Hooksett, NH rest areas. These have lots of parking, and the SC are further from the building (especially northbound, which are really far away). I've seen Hooksett ICE'd once. It was southbound, and a pickup truck in one of the 6 (other 5 free). Clearly someone making a statement.

Joules Verne · Jul 26, 2015

@tga: The charging station spaces were furthest away from the building. You are right though, parking is a premium there. All parking spaces were full.

rlang59 · Jul 27, 2015

Joe Electric said:
@tga: The charging station spaces were furthest away from the building. You are right though, parking is a premium there. All parking spaces were full.

Here is a post on the PlugShare listing of those Superchargers from a Connecticut DOT official as an FYI:

Updated Friday, April 24, 2015 @ 5:15 PM: Due to high parking stall utilization at these plazas, posted stalls shall be used for SHARED parking or EV charging: Stalls are FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVE; Vehicle may EITHER park 15 minutes OR CHARGE 45 minutes; Vehicle must vacate stall after EITHER park OR charge cycle is complete. Thank you for your cooperation. Please direct any comments or questions to: Richard C. Hanley, P.E. Connecticut DOT Telephone: 860-594-2887 Email: [email protected]

jeffro01 · Jul 27, 2015

rlang59 said:
Here is a post on the PlugShare listing of those Superchargers from a Connecticut DOT official as an FYI:

Updated Friday, April 24, 2015 @ 5:15 PM: Due to high parking stall utilization at these plazas, posted stalls shall be used for SHARED parking or EV charging: Stalls are FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVE; Vehicle may EITHER park 15 minutes OR CHARGE 45 minutes; Vehicle must vacate stall after EITHER park OR charge cycle is complete. Thank you for your cooperation. Please direct any comments or questions to: Richard C. Hanley, P.E. Connecticut DOT Telephone: 860-594-2887 Email: [email protected]

Ouch... Well at least it's clear. I'm sure this was one of those lack of options situations for Tesla. I love the push they've made with the SC rollout and always figured there would be places that they needed to get stalls in now but will need to go back and expand\improve the experience as time allows.

Jeff

andrewket · Jul 27, 2015

Theoretically then the longest you should have to wait for a stall is 15 minutes. But we know in reality that won't be the case. People will park there much longer than 15 minutes.

MorrisonHiker · Jul 27, 2015

andrewket said:
Theoretically then the longest you should have to wait for a stall is 15 minutes. But we know in reality that won't be the case. People will park there much longer than 15 minutes.

That assumes nobody else is in line already waiting for it. Then you might have to wait an hour or more. Things could really get hairy if there are multiple Teslas and ICE vehicles all vying for the same spot. :frown:

ReddyLeaf · Jul 27, 2015

The solution of course is to overwhelm the ICERs with Teslas!:biggrin:

robby · Jul 27, 2015

tga said:
Not to defend the ICE'ers, but Greenwich is a tiny rest area (southbound is smaller than northbound), so parking is at a premium, and most people are making a quick stop (run in, hit the bathroom, get a snack), so the delays would be minimal. Well within the 15 min the (unclear) signs seem to allow.

I haven't been to Greenwich since the SC's were installed - are these close to the building? That wouldn't help.

Contrast that with, say, the Hooksett, NH rest areas. These have lots of parking, and the SC are further from the building (especially northbound, which are really far away). I've seen Hooksett ICE'd once. It was southbound, and a pickup truck in one of the 6 (other 5 free). Clearly someone making a statement.

Hooksett Southbound was ICEd Sunday afternoon. Five of us were charging, and an ICE driver parked in the last spot right in front of us. Of course by Murphy's Law, as soon as the man left his car, another Tesla arrived. Fortunately we had enough charge to get out of there quickly and make room.

I've never had range anxiety, but after this incident and my drive back from Atlantic City, when an ICE driver flat out refused to move his car from the Supercharger spot for me, I'm starting to have Supercharge anxiety.

Joules Verne · Jul 27, 2015

MorrisonHiker said:
That assumes nobody else is in line already waiting for it. Then you might have to wait an hour or more. Things could really get hairy if there are multiple Teslas and ICE vehicles all vying for the same spot. :frown:

Yeah, I can only imagine what my wife will be saying as we wait, and wait, and wait.
Not a user experience to look forward to.
I still want one though :tongue:

JohnQ · Jul 27, 2015

For the broader issue, if you took the 84/91/15 route you can charge at Auburn, West Hartford, Greenwich or jump over to Darien on 95. Plenty of options in the NE to get a charge.

As mentioned above, Greenwich is really tough to park and I completely understand the decision to permit brief parking by everyone there. Greenwich is an emergency stop for me, not a primary.

andrewket · Jul 27, 2015

robby said:
Hooksett Southbound was ICEd Sunday afternoon. Five of us were charging, and an ICE driver parked in the last spot right in front of us. Of course by Murphy's Law, as soon as the man left his car, another Tesla arrived. Fortunately we had enough charge to get out of there quickly and make room.

I've never had range anxiety, but after this incident and my drive back from Atlantic City, when an ICE driver flat out refused to move his car from the Supercharger spot for me, I'm starting to have Supercharge anxiety.

Was there another spot available when this person refused? Or was the spot EV only?

shadowinstallz · Jul 27, 2015

I hit this sc (southbound) once in a while....I'm always lucky to grab one spot....the spots are at the far end of the lot. The parking signs are too high up for a driver pulling up to the spot to see....but these spots do open up pretty quickly....it does suck when it gets real busy like on Friday evenings.

sgopal2 · Jul 28, 2015

I hit these same superchargers last week while driving through Connecticut. Both times I arrived (north bound and south bound) several of the spots were ICEd. When pulling up I argued with several of the ICErs. They seemed to interpret the "15 mins except while charging" that they could park there for 15 mins. Oh well, this really sucks for us, because the ICE cars don't give a crap and just park wherever they feel like it.

Once the Model X and 3 rolls out, there will be a lot more people waiting for the superchargers. Tesla really needs to do something about it. People don't park in handicap spots. But no one thinks twice about ICEing. This mentality needs to change.

Supercharges and ICE occupancy

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