Supercharger Handicap Space

[MorrisonHiker]

It would have to be labeled like this one for you to be able to use it without a handicap placard/plate.

View attachment 346470

Yeah, this is what they have in Winnemucca. I couldn't remember the exact wording. Thanks for the photo.

 

[rhumbliner]

ADA Compliance Brief: Restriping Parking Spaces - 2010 Standards

Accessible parking spaces must be located on the shortest accessible route of travel to an accessible facility entrance. Where buildings have multiple accessible entrances with adjacent parking, the accessible parking spaces must be dispersed and located closest to the accessible entrances.

This would seem to imply that merely putting up a handicapped sign is not sufficient. A handicapped spot needs to meet this qualification.

The link above also explains how the number of required handicapped spots is determined.

 

[aesculus]

Yeah, this is what they have in Winnemucca.

That was where the picture was from. Maybe the only one like it in the world?

 

[mociaf9]

Just so people understand why the handicapped spot is being put way out in the boonies, it has nothing to do with "killing 2 birds with 1 stone" as was suggested above. There was a change in California Building Code in 2016 (effective 2017-01-01) to explicitly require EV Charging Stations (EVCS) to meet Federal ADA compliance requirements, and laying out the specifics of how to do so. These rules have since been taken up by other states, also. There's a formula for how to determine the number needed and all the other considerations involved.

Here's the California State Architect's page on EVCS Accessibliity which has FAQs and other relevant links: LINK

Presentation in video below starts at close to 5m30s, but if you don't care about all the background and reasoning for why ADA applies you can probably skip to ~40 minutes in for an explanation of actual requirements:

 

[mjones]

Just so people understand why the handicapped spot is being put way out in the boonies, it has nothing to do with "killing 2 birds with 1 stone" as was suggested above. There was a change in California Building Code in 2016 (effective 2017-01-01) to explicitly require EV Charging Stations (EVCS) to meet Federal ADA compliance requirements, and laying out the specifics of how to do so. These rules have since been taken up by other states, also. There's a formula for how to determine the number needed and all the other considerations involved.

Here's the California State Architect's page on EVCS Accessibliity which has FAQs and other relevant links: LINK

Presentation in video below starts at close to 5m30s, but if you don't care about all the background and reasoning for why ADA applies you can probably skip to ~40 minutes in for an explanation of actual requirements:

Unfortunately nearly every California 4 station supercharger that I've encountered always marks the mandatory van-accessible spot with the ISA symbol even though it isn't required (CBC 11B-812.8.1 says that the symbol isn't required) Similarly, the 5-25 spot stations don't require all of the accessible spots to be marked with the ISA symbol (CBC 11B-812.8.2)

In California, the mere presence of the symbol is grounds for a vehicle code infraction (presuming no accessibility placard or plates)

 

[DrTaras]

Unfortunately nearly every California 4 station supercharger that I've encountered always marks the mandatory van-accessible spot with the ISA symbol even though it isn't required (CBC 11B-812.8.1 says that the symbol isn't required) Similarly, the 5-25 spot stations don't require all of the accessible spots to be marked with the ISA symbol (CBC 11B-812.8.2)

In California, the mere presence of the symbol is grounds for a vehicle code infraction (presuming no accessibility placard or plates)

Wow! Loved all the factual information! Thank YOU mjones!

 

[mjones]

Wow! Loved all the factual information! Thank YOU mjones!

Your welcome. Unfortunately, I'll be the first to admit that I've used the handicap spots when no other option is available. However, I absolutely refuse to leave the car unattended so that I can move if someone with accessible plates/placards shows up.

Once I was able to move after about 5 minutes when someone freed up a spot. On all the other occasions I was gone before anyone emptied another spot.

 

[Ulmo]

I wrote this in two minutes; maybe it has ideas, maybe it doesn't:

The no parking space actually supports a handicapped charging space on the other side, too. At the far left of this picture, the white Model 3 is in that space clearly marked with a handicap sign. That has the HPWC from the Tesla Store. The SuC space has the "occupy this one last" message.

View attachment 376800

THank you.

I think the law should update and somehow designate charging stalls needed for any particular timeline and vehicle according to handicapped spacing and distance requirements dynamically, such that any stall could be used as long as one is made available at all times that has the requisite positioning, space, etc. For instance:

Store
Sidewalk
UEEUUUUEEU

That is a diagram of space, with the U as used by someone charging and E as empty. The right half of stalls could be considered "too far", and the left half "close enough" for handicapped accessibility. The EE would be reserved for ONLY handicapped people. The cars would be electronically registered as handicapped in such a way Tesla reserves them. The car would tell you as you pull up which spaces are reserved for handicapped, so you couldn't use them. Easy programmatically. Here is the updated diagram depicting that:

Store
Sidewalk
UHHUUUUEEU

H=Handicapped reserved. As you can see, Tesla would always reserve some handicapped spaces. Let's say some people leave:

Store
Sidewalk
UVHVUUUEEU

V=variable reserved; a car could come and park in either V, but then immediately this would happen:

Store
Sidewalk
UUHHUUUEEU

Tesla would designate the other space to be handicapped, and dynamically move this space around. Then, if a handicapped person arrives, this happens:

Store
Sidewalk
UUhhUUUEEU

where h=handicapped in use. Then:

Store
Sidewalk
UUHHEEUEEU

maybe Tesla could reserve more handicapped spaces:

Store
Sidewalk
UUhhHHUEEU

 

[mociaf9]

THank you.

I think the law should update and somehow designate charging stalls needed for any particular timeline and vehicle according to handicapped spacing and distance requirements dynamically, such that any stall could be used as long as one is made available at all times that has the requisite positioning, space, etc. For instance:

The disabled accessible stalls have different requirements than other stalls. For this particular application, what's most relevant is mainly the minimum width requirement. If all the stalls were "potentially accessible" that would result in fewer charging stalls total for a given location's available space.