Parking in electric bays

[Blinkingheckythump]

I went somewhere the other day where parking was very full, excitedly started to pull into a bay to realise it was an electric vehicle only bay. I didn't park in it and was lucky enough to get the last normal bay. But it did make me think. There was no one in any of the electric vehicle bays and every other space was then full. If you turned up after me would you have parked in the electric bay as a normal car?
Yabu no I would not
Yanbu yes I would

I live in an area with mostly on street parking and electric bays were put in a couple of years ago. At the moment they can be parked in by anyone whether charging or not, I only realised this when the council started the notice period to change them to being ringfenced!!

It's not an electric parking bay though, it's a charging point.

You wouldn't just park on the fuel pump and fuck off into the shop to do your weekly, would you? not convinced some cf wouldn't actually

You would have no right to be annoyed though, as if there was no sign there prohibiting parking for ICEs then the bay clearly isn't restricted for electric car parking only.

Why would you view it the same as a P&C bay?

It's a charging point, to charge your car, as far as I am aware a P&C space is just for parking in.

Depending on who owns it, you would be risking a fine. Local to me, someone got a fine for parking their electric car in a bay but not leaving it charging. Seems fair enough to me as pressure on them is only going to increase.

Because it's a spot in a carpark reserved for a particular set of people. Like I said, I wouldn't use them ordinarily, but if, as in previous examples, there were ten empty charging spaces or a quarter of a busy car park was given over to them then I might use it. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't.

Because it's a spot in a carpark reserved for a particular set of people.

Maybe you need to rethink how you vie this 'spot' - it's less parking space and more fuel top up. If you need fuel and someone os parked at the pump that would not be ok, would it?

No, and I wouldn't park there in my electric car if I wasn't charging either. It happens regularly to me at my local car park and I don't want to pay for the charger so I wait for a normal space.

There are more spots at the pumps than in the carpark at our petrol station. At busy times like after school drop off if someone parked at a pump to run in and grab some milk on the way home that wouldn't bother me.

It's a case for sensible and proportionate decision making, unlike disabled spaces which are a normal issue. My view anyway.

We have an electric car and it is infuriating when normal cars are parked in charging spaces. You might think nobody needs it when you park but you don't know that a car on low charge may be 20 seconds behind you and then has to wait for you to come out of the shops.

I think a big part of the problem at the moment is that so many EV charging spots are in normal car parks and have reduced the number of spaces in often already busy car parks.

as EVs become more in number then an alternative is going to need to be found because it’s not going to be sustainable otherwise.

I've never even thought about it, as they are charging bays not parking bays.

There are more spots at the pumps than in the carpark at our petrol station. At busy times like after school drop off if someone parked at a pump to run in and grab some milk on the way home that wouldn't bother me.

I only gave the pump as example so you would maybe understand they are not just parking bays but charging points. Realistically the charing points are in the car park at the supermarket/service station etc not the petrol station. It's clear you want to defend blocking someone ability to fuel their car (by electricity) if it suits you to park there instead.

No. I do have an EV and only park it in charging spaces if I need to charge. Reason being it pisses me off no end when I do pull in to a charging space and someone has dumped their EV there without it being on charge.

My car does use diesel, still wouldn't be parking it up at a diesel pump then going off somewhere 🤷‍♀️ can you even imagine how annoying that would be to someone who needed to use it?

I wouldn't park there unless I was charging a car.

Prob it’s own thread but I always wonder what is the maximum acceptable amount of shopping you can do in the petrol station once you’ve filled up, assuming you need to go in to pay. I’m kind of thinking “7 items or fewer and no browsing allowed”.

I have this dilemma when I take my mum shopping in her local town centre. My mum is a blue badge holder and struggles to walk; the carpark is very busy and unless you are there before 9am, there is no chance of getting a disabled space. The Council recently took out 5 disabled spaces and made them electric charging spaces - however, none of them are ever used. It does infuriate me a bit and as a result we don't bother going there as it's too stressful for my mum.

I don't see the difference between parking at a petrol pump and parking in an EV space. Not exactly being a good citizen but not a big deal either (for the record I've never done either).

My point is that this is a massive change in infrastructure that's going to take place over the next decade or so. There will be times and places where the EV provision is disproportionate, one way or the other. If we're all a bit sensible about it I'll be fine.

Well that's not where the chargers go, so that would be spotted immediately..

Some around us are for charging but you can park in them if not charging.

What any car can park in them? Even if they're not electric?

"Some around us are for charging but you can park in them if not charging"

Who says that? Is there a sign or is it just case of "everyone does it."

In my nearest one there are 3x electric that are marked electric only, and 3x that have chargers that are not marked electric only.

So the council have clearly decided for whatever reason some should be dual use.

I've blocked someone in at a motorway service station because they were in the electric bay and I needed to charge so I parked over the back of them.