Permit issued for Tesla Supercharger at Towne Centre at Laurel
According to the City of Laurel, a permit has been issued to build a Tesla Supercharger at 14700 Baltimore Avenue in the Towne Centre at Laurel. Plans are for eight stalls on the lower level of the parking garage next to the Regal Movie Theater.
These photos taken at the Supercharger site show that Miss Utility has recently paid a visit. The transformer will be to the left of the red markings.
Eight pull-in stalls are proposed to go along the western side of the garage.
Stay tuned to @PlugInSites for more Featured Plug In Sites and EV charging news.
Two DC Fast Chargers have appeared online at the Valley Mall in Hagerstown, Maryland. They’re on the ChargePoint network and pricing is listed as $0.05/min, $0.19/kWh.
These are the ChargePoint Express 200 liquid-cooled models made by Tritium with both a CHAdeMO and SAE Combo connector. They have a 50kW output that charges at a maximum rate of 200 RPH (miles of Range Per Hour).
Click here for map and details of Maryland EVIP CHAdeMO/SAE Combo Fast Chargers.
It seems to rarely happen but sometimes the rules are enforced when an ICE vehicle blocks an EV charging station. This photo was sent to us by a PlugInSites reader and was taken at One Loudoun near the Alamo Cinema in Ashburn, Virginia.
The charging station space is marked with a sign the states, “ELECTRIC CAR PARKING ONLY – TOWING ENFORCED” It also includes the telephone number to call if towed. The pavement is marked with a blue square bearing an EV charging symbol.
Many jurisdictions allow private property owners such as shopping centers to tow vehicles that trespass or do not follow the rules set by the property. This presumably fell into that category since neither Virginia nor Loudoun County have an anti-ICEing law.
The management of One Loudoun is apparently willing to enforce their parking restrictions. A woman reportedly ran out and chased after the tow truck as it carried away the SUV.
Last summer, there were absolutely no public charging stations in Ocean City, Maryland. The best you could do was try to use a 120v outlet at your hotel or, if you had a Tesla, hit the Supercharger in Salisbury on your way in and ration your miles during your stay.
What a difference a year makes. Now there are 18 charging ports at seven locations in OC plus a DC Fast Charger at the Royal Farms Store in West Ocean City that serves CHAdeMO and SAE Combo equipped cars. Twelve of the charging ports (nine Tesla Wall Connectors and three J-1772 ClipperCreek 30A Level 2) were installed as part of the Tesla Destination Charging program.
The Atlantic House Bed and Breakfast has one Tesla station for guests. The Holiday Inn Oceanfront has four 80A Tesla connectors and two 30A J-1772 stations. Desk Manager, Vlad Paic and Digital Marketing Coordinator, Kevin Lloyd, spearheaded the initiative to bring the Tesla charging program to this Harrison Group property which was the first of these new charging sites to open in November, 2015.
The Town of Ocean City placed two Tesla stations and one ClipperCreek at the Convention Center under the Tesla program. The Town also accepted an offer from Baltimore-based EVI to install two stations each at Northside Park, the library and the OC Recreation Complex.
The Princess Royale Hotel at 9100 Coastal Hwy has two (80A) Tesla Wall Connectors that were added in the summer of 2016.
So, when you plan your summer drive to Ocean City this year, you can take the electric car. Here is some spectacular aerial video of Ocean City recorded by YouTuber “Elevated Element.”
Today is the Centennial of the Beardsley Electric Tour held April 15, 1916 in Southern California.
One hundred years ago, on a clear Saturday morning, the owners of 35 California-built Beardsley Electric cars got together for “possibly the largest gathering of one make of electrics ever assembled for a tour.” The drivers, along with over 100 guests, drove from the Beardsley Showroom in downtown Los Angeles to the Hotel Virginia in Long Beach where the party indulged in a banquet and a dip in the ocean before returning home. Each car averaged over 70 miles on the trip and it is reported that “not a single mishap occurred and every car finished the run on its own power.”
At the time, the Beardsley company attempted to compete with the larger automobile builders in the East by promoting a new light town car touted as “the lowest priced electric built in America.” Beardsley built a factory in Los Angeles but the company’s fortunes soon fell with the rise of much cheaper gasoline-powered cars and the company closed in 1918.
Read more about this and other historic electric vehicle trips at SociabilityRun.org
Baltimore County Anti-ICEing Law Took Effect April 4, 2016
Baltimore County now joins Montgomery and Howard Counties in Maryland as having a law to prohibit non plug-in electric vehicles from blocking EV charging spaces. The bill was sponsored by Cathy Bevins and Tom Quirk and was passed unanimously by Baltimore County Council on March 21.
Example of an official sign
The law is enforceable on private property that is used by the public such as shopping centers. The law says that in order to be enforced, the charging space must be designated by a sign approved by the police. Presumably, this includes that the signs must conform in design, color, size, and placement to the standards established in the “Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways.”
A violation will be punishable by a fine of $75.00. There is no towing provision spelled out in the Baltimore County law.
COUNTY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE COUNTY, MARYLAND
Legislative Session 2015, Legislative Day No. 4
Bill No. 9-16A PERSON MAY NOT PARK A VEHICLE THAT IS NOT A PLUG-IN VEHICLE IN A SPACE, INCLUDING A SPACE ON PRIVATE PROPERTY USED BY THE PUBLIC IN GENERAL, THAT
(1) IS DESIGNATED FOR THE USE OF PLUG-IN VEHICLES WITH A SIGN APPROVED BY THE POLICE DEPARTMENT STATING THE PROHIBITION OF THIS SECTION; AND
(2) PROVIDES ACCESS TO A PLUG-IN VEHICLE RECHARGING STATION.
(8) PARKING IN A SPACE DESIGNATED FOR PLUG-IN VEHICLES IN VIOLATION OF §18-2-212 IS A VIOLATION PUNISHABLE BY A FINE OF $75; AND
SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, that this Act, having been passed by the affirmative vote of five members of the County Council shall take effect on April 4, 2016.
Recently, the Columbia Association took down the “EV PARKING ONLY” signs at their five EV charging stations in Howard County, MD. [See: Signs Removed to Prevent Enforcement of Anti-ICEing Law] The staff said that they didn’t want people to get tickets after a law was passed to clarify enforcement at charging stations on private parking facilities in the county.
Taking down the signs was a surprise and contradicted the Columbia Association’s earlier position that the “EV PARKING ONLY” signs were posted only because Howard County had a law that the Council passed in July, 2014. [See: Anti-ICEing Bill Passed in Howard County]
I attended the March 24, 2016 Columbia Association Board Meeting and “resident speak out” session to bring the matter to the attention of the CA President/CEO Milton Matthews and Board Members to seek a resolution. Here is audio from that session:
Audio: @Lanny speaks to Columbia Association Board of Directors about EV Parking Signs.
At about the 3:50 mark, CA President Milton Matthews says the signs have been put back up, however they have reached out to the Howard County Police Department and told them that if a non-electric vehicle parks there, they (CA) does not want them ticketed or towed. This of course goes against the spirit of the anti-ICEing law that Columbia Association said they wanted and that the EV community and local lawmakers led by Jen Terrasa and Calvin Ball spent several years getting passed.
It doesn’t make sense to wait until there is an enforceable regulation to put up signs that reserve the spots for EVs and then to take the signs down or ask the police to not enforce the hard-won law.
The Columbia Association President told me to check back in about a month and he will tell me where they stand at that time.
Temporary signs are back up at Columbia Association but the ICEing continues.
If the current Maryland anti-ICEing bill becomes law, will most charging spots actually be enforceable? Probably not, unless charging station owners take the initiative to post the special signs and apply and maintain green painted markings on the pavement to designate each EV charging space.
Key Proposed Amendment Missing
House Bill 839 has passed a vote in the Maryland House of Delegates today, although it doesn’t have all the amendments that we asked for. Disappointingly, the bill still requires “green pavement markings” in addition to a sign in order to be enforceable. The inclusion of the pavement markings provision is reportedly at the request of law enforcement who say that they will not enforce parking restrictions at handicapped parking spots if the spot is not marked on the pavement and will apply that same policy to EV charging spaces.
Compared to Handicapped Parking Enforcement
Oddly, there is no requirement for handicapped parking spots to have pavement markings under Federal or Maryland State Code. The law enforcement sources that were consulted by the legislature reported said that some courts routinely throw out cases involving handicapped parking if the pavement is not marked and that is the basis for their position.
White pavement marking will not be enforceable – must be green.
Unfortunately, there are no uniform standards for marking the pavement at EV charging spaces. Some charging station operators use white stenciled lettering to mark the pavement. Some paint the whole space green, others only make the lines separating the spaces green. Some even use blue instead of green or white paint.
Signs Simplified
We were, however, successful in getting two amendments that we asked for. One was to remove language requiring that vehicles be connected for charging purposes. That was struck from the bill. The other amendment that we suggested was to remove the requirement for lengthy language to be stated on the sign detailing that violators would be subject to a fine and towing or removal at the owner’s expense. We suggested that the sign simply meet the applicable standards for parking control signs. That was adopted and the requirement is now simply to state the maximum fine on the sign, i.e. “$100 MAX FINE”.
Effective signage is possibly more important than laws in keeping people with gas cars from parking in EV charging station spots. It has been a challenge to convince charging station owners to post signs that are effective. There is also the issue of unintended consequences. A number of charging stations in Howard County Maryland had their signs removed recently as a result of the County Council passing an anti-ICEing law. The station’s owner, the Columbia Association, “didn’t want people to get tickets.”
Next Step
The bill heads to the Senate now. Stay tuned for developments.
Last Tuesday the Howard County Council voted on a bill to authorize the Howard County Police Department to enforce parking restrictions at designated plug-in vehicle charging stations on private property. Within four days, the Columbia Association had taken down all signs that said “EV PARKING ONLY” at their five EV charging stations in the county.
Dennis Mattey, Director of Open Space & Facilities Services at Columbia Association said the “EV PARKING ONLY” signs were taken down in response to the recent Howard County legislation. He said that they didn’t want people to get tickets. According to Mattey, the charging stations were originally approved under the premise that the parking spots not be only for EVs. He said the signs will be replaced with ones that designate EV preferred parking.
Columbia Association Changed Position on Signage
The reason given for removing the signs contradicts the Columbia Association’s earlier position that “EV ONLY” signs were not posted because of the absence of legislation related to EV charging spaces.
In a Columbia Association Newsletter announcing the charging stations in 2014, the reason given as to why the charging spots were not reserved for EVs only was said to be because of the lack of an enforceable law.
“There are several reasons the adjacent parking spaces are not posted as reserved for EV use only. First there is no statute in Maryland or Howard County designating EV charging station sites as a category of privileged parking (such as the signage posted for handicapped parking). Thus, there is no police enforcement mechanism for EV only designation.”
When Howard County passed its anti-ICEing law in July, 2014, the Columbia Association changed the signs from “Electric Vehicle Charging Station” to “EV PARKING ONLY 4 HOUR LIMIT” once they saw there was an enforceable regulation for EV charging station parking.
The advocacy for the Howard County anti-ICEing law was done largely to solve the problem at the Columbia Association charging stations, especially the one near Kahler Hall. Now that a law has been passed, the Columbia Association has reversed their position and cites the existence rather than the lack of an enforceable regulation as the reason not to reserve the charging spaces for EVs only.
A statewide anti-ICEing bill, sponsored by Delegate Clarence Lam, is now before the Maryland General Assembly.
In 2014, Howard County Councilmember Jen Terassa sponsored Council Bill 36-2014 which was designed to prohibit ICEing of EV charging stations. The bill passed and a law went into effect a few months later. Soon after, there arose varying interpretations of the Police Department’s legal authority to enforce EV parking spaces on private property. (see: Police: No Authority to Ticket for ICEing on Private Property)
Howard County CB7-2016 will add the following two sentences to the existing anti-ICEing law:
(1) THE POLICE DEPARTMENT MAY ENFORCE THIS SECTION ON PUBLIC PROPERTY OR PRIVATE PROPERTY.
(2) THE POLICE DEPARTMENT MAY IMPOUND A VEHICLE THAT IS PARKED IN VIOLATION OF THIS SECTION.
Council Voted to Pass CB7-2016
On March 7, 2016, the County Council voted in favor of CB7-2016. During the vote, Council Chairperson Ball thanked Councilmember Jen Terrasa for her leadership and partnership on this issue. Ball said, “I believe that renewable energy is important and I believe that we should continue moving toward a more sustainable future for our environment.”
Terassa said, “This is an important addition to the bill that we did before.”
Regulatory Signage Needed in Order to be Enforceable
EV drivers shouldn’t get too excited and think that the police can now just write tickets at any and all charging stations in Howard County. The law will require a sign that is at least 12 inches by 18 inches and must meet any applicable State or Federal standards for parking control signs. That means that in order to be enforceable, the sign must meet standards defined in the Federal or Maryland Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). Very few charging stations in Howard County have these signs installed. The only place I’ve seen them are at Howard County government charging stations. Importantly, the signs at Columbia Association parking lots do not seem to conform to the standards.
A Role for Local EV Organizations?
It will be a challenge to convince private parking facility owners and managers to post regulatory signs that will allow the police to ticket. Perhaps some of the Maryland-based EV organizations that have memberships, money and influence can take the initiative to get signs that meet the required standards installed at frequently ICEd charging stations in Howard and Montgomery Counties. The Columbia Association Athletic Club would be a good place to begin. (see: Is Graffiti the Right Response to ICEing Problem?)
