Charging Station Etiquette
Aug. 22nd, 2022 10:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerI finished my trek of I would fly 500 miles and I would drive 500 more on Sunday. We left the hotel in Bakersfield at 9am. It's 251 miles from there to my house. We split the drive with a stop for recharging and lunch at an oasis near Firebaugh on I-5.
The car got better mileage on Sunday. Partly that's due to less sweltering temperatures; they ranged between about 80-93° (27-35 C) in the Central Valley during our late-morning drive through there. And partly it's because we didn't drive as fast. Yes, I-5 is a long, straight road... but it's also crowded compared to I-15 and US-58 yesterday. With slow trucks and cars all over the places there isn't as much room to open the throttle.
At the charging stop I solidified my awareness of an emergent pattern among EV owners and their behavior at charging stations. It's a dichotomy that splits mostly along the lines of EV newcomers vs. EV grizzled veterans— which you can tell based on whether they're driving an EV that looks, say, at least 2 years old vs. one that looks relatively new.
Every charging station we visited this weekend— and we visited four of them— had both types of people. And it aligned 100% with driving a new car vs. a slightly older one.
The car got better mileage on Sunday. Partly that's due to less sweltering temperatures; they ranged between about 80-93° (27-35 C) in the Central Valley during our late-morning drive through there. And partly it's because we didn't drive as fast. Yes, I-5 is a long, straight road... but it's also crowded compared to I-15 and US-58 yesterday. With slow trucks and cars all over the places there isn't as much room to open the throttle.
At the charging stop I solidified my awareness of an emergent pattern among EV owners and their behavior at charging stations. It's a dichotomy that splits mostly along the lines of EV newcomers vs. EV grizzled veterans— which you can tell based on whether they're driving an EV that looks, say, at least 2 years old vs. one that looks relatively new.
- For EV newcomers, recharging is a social event. When they hook up the charger they look around and are eager to chat with others about their vehicles and experiences. They're also conscientious about using the chargers. They pull into the spaces straight, and monitor their charge to pull out of the slot when they're done— so the next person can start charging.
- The grizzled vets are the opposite of that. They pull in quickly and carelessly, often parking diagonally across two spaces. They connect the cables without acknowledging their neighbors. They leave their cars well past the time it takes to complete a charge, continuing to block multiple spaces that others could be using. You can't ask them to move because they're nowhere to be seen— for hours.
Every charging station we visited this weekend— and we visited four of them— had both types of people. And it aligned 100% with driving a new car vs. a slightly older one.
