Point of View


‘Baghdad by the Bay,’ EVs and Charging Stations


By John Van Horn


I just got back from a couple of days in that city by the bay. Let’s face it, San Francisco is beautiful—it’s clean, crisp


and artsy. Great restaurants, super food, wonderful shopping, absolutely perfect venues for vacations and relaxing. What’s not to like? San Francisco is like that crazy uncle who comes to visit. He


has great stories, he brings super gifts for the kids, he knows just the right thing to say. But he can wear out his welcome. You are silently relieved when he goes home. San Francisco is like that. For every wonderful view or great


restaurant, something is lurking, just behind the scenes. I was told, for instance,


about “critical mass.” Don’t know what that is? Think it has to do with nuclear fission? Guess again. In “Baghdad by the Bay” –


If you drive a car, get rid of it. If you


stub your toe, get a handicapped parking permit (there are three times the number of handicapped permits in SF than there are on- street spaces). If you want to live on the street, so be it – until you end up in front of someone’s house who doesn’t like it and has some pull, then you will be tossed in jail. The city is populated by activists that decry any damming of


and many other cities world- wide – “Critical Mass” happens the last Friday of every month when cyclists decide to take over the downtown area and block traffic. The person telling me about it said that she had been trapped


for two hours in what became a melee, with cyclists hammering on her car and riding their bikes over it. “I’m from LA,” she said. “Nobody touches my car.” She was outnumbered. This happened about five years ago. Although Critical Mass


in San Francisco is a tad smaller now and a bit more civilized, it still exists. Its goal—removal of all private vehicles from the city, by any means possible. Members of the cycling coalition are deeply involved in all


aspects of city planning. They, it appears, are willing to do any- thing to get their way. Aluncheon meeting participant told me about a San Francis-


co ordinance that was attempted – and later stopped – to force parking operators to set monthly rates in their garages at a level relative to daily rates. In other words, if your daily rate was, say, $40, then your monthly rate had to be $1,200. The goal—make it economically impossible for people to


drive into the city and force them onto buses, trains and bicycles. Asecond issue regarded zoning. San Francisco supervisors


attempted to pass a zoning change making all surface lots illegal. Ninety days notice and you close down your lot. Their goal was to tell a private business owner how much to charge for his prod- uct, and then to take away a person’s business. When the regulations were stopped earlier this year, the


changes were slipped into a 300-page omnibus bill and discov- ered by accident. They will be stopped again. But what about next time? The “crazy uncle” on the Golden Gate is being taken over by


“my way or the highway” folks who aren’t in the business of compromise or of understanding that most people like to be left well enough alone.


6


In other words, if your daily rate was, say, $40, then your monthly rate had to be $1200.


rivers in the Sierra, but bathe in water that comes from the very dams they oppose. This is the place where low-flow toilets and shower heads have reduced the sewage flow so much that the pipes are backing up since there isn’t enough water to “flush” them out and into the treatment plants. Solution? Put bleach down them to clean them out… San Francisco, it appears,


like that crazy uncle, believes the law of unintended consequences doesn’t apply. It’s a city where “South of


Market” is booming, because start-up software nerds don’t


want to be in buildings with the “suits” – those high-rises in the financial district – and will pay more to occupy loft spaces. I’m sure they feel the suits have sold out, but are more than willing to meet with them when venture capital time rolls around. San Francisco is a city where $250-a-night hotel rooms are


“average” – “but they have a great view of the bay.” I must live on another planet, because I think that when I pay $150 a night I’m being shafted. Like that crazy uncle, San Francisco is attractive, fun and full


of really neat people. However, it’s nice to come home. I’m not sure I could take it, or him, full time. However, I will be back.


*** Afriend from the Bank of America garage in LAsaid that his


EV charging stations are in use 90% of the time handling seven EV’s. One wag queried: “Does 90% utilization mean 10% driving time?” I have a different take on my friend’s comment. If the charging stations are in use 90% of the time, and he has


four stations and only seven electric vehicles in the garage, does this mean that if he gets even one more EV, he will have to add another charging station, and then another, and then another? There are two types of commercial chargers. One will fully


charge an EV in four to five hours, and the other will give an 80% charge in sort of half an hour. If the B ofAgarage’s machines are the four-to-five-hour type


(assuming that 90% usage by seven vehicles), each vehicle is hooked up five hours — 35 hours charging total per day. Each charger is in use about 90% of the time. If EVs “take off” and become 10% of the driving public, that


1,000-car garage will need charging for 100 cars, or about 15 sta- tions, and someone to jockey the cars around when the four to five hours are up.


Continued on Page 9 Parking Today www.parkingtoday.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60