Charging Green for St. Patrick’s Day

green


Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It’s the day for wearing green, eating corned beef and cabbage and drinking green beer.  In that spirit, here are some of my favorite green-colored Plug In Sites.

Above is a photo of the five ChargePoint stations in the garage at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve. These are some of the first public charging stations installed in Maryland in early 2012. At first there was a chronic problem with gas vehicles ICEing the charging spots. The hotel management was very eager to solve the problem. They tried painting green stripes on the floor and green text on the wall that read, “ELECTRIC CAR USE ONLY.” Gas cars still blocked the spots.

Annapolis Green Paint

Next they painted the entire wall in front of the charging spots green with white text. That still didn’t work. Then they got official NO PARKING EXCEPT FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING signs and the ICEing problem evaporated overnight. ICEing hasn’t been a major problem there since.
This charging site is at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis.  This is the most vivid shade of green markings that I’ve ever seen! I’m all for using green pavement markings to supplement effective signs, I only oppose a mandate to require green paint in order to be enforceable. It’s hard to miss these green spots.


Another early EV charging site is Maple Lawn in Howard County, Maryland. They began with six SemaConnect stations in 2011 and now there are 18 charging ports divided between three office buildings. All of the charging spots are fully painted green. Looney’s Pub in Maple Lawn is a popular place to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day. There’s lots of green in Maple Lawn tonight, I’m sure.

I hope none of the people celebrating at Looney’s parked their gas vehicle in one of those green EV charging spots. Maple Lawn has opted not to post the official signs that would allow the Howard County Police to ticket for ICEing. But the management has said they are willing to tow and they have warned people with these green stickers.

Enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day.

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