Public Charging in Buffalo, NY

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MLucas

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
833
Location
Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada
I know for many in larger urban areas and mostly on the West Coast that public charging is no big deal and rapidly becoming a norm. I've read many of JoeS's long range drives of his i using public charging. Frankly, that makes me downright envious! :mrgreen:

Well, the closest public charging I have available in Buffalo is over at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Center, about a mile away from my office. I'm still trying to convince the owners of the parking garage to let me use the 110v outlets but I still have not heard back, after several conversations with the garage manager. The last one, I had to send a picture of the equipment I planned to use and the specifications. Hopefully, something soon will come of this.

Instead of waiting, I decided to go try the public charging over at the medical center today. The lot attendant immediately came over asking me if this was an electric car. Glad he was on duty and preserving those spots for us but I politely told him it was and I was there to charge up. He said he never saw one like that before. I guess the 'Green Vehicle' Ontario plates didn't give him enough hint. Nice enough feller, though.

I used a folding bike, that I had stashed in the hatch of my i to get back to my office. After work, I'll return to my fully charged car and have plenty of amps to go get my mail in Niagara Falls this afternoon. Who needs huge battery packs when you got a good charging infrastructure around. Those of you that have abundant amount of charging stations in your neighborhoods, your very lucky - you probably know that though.
 
MLucas - here's a strange quirk: despite the proliferation of charging stations here in the SF Bay Area, I am not as relaxed about taking longer trips as I was a few months ago... it's not range anxiety as much as charger availability anxiety. Instead of pure EVs, it's the proliferation of Volts, and you can't simply pull out the plug on them as it sets off their alarm (but it stops after about a minute :twisted: ). I have a sign that I put on my car which says to go ahead and pull out my plug after a certain clocktime and give my cellphone number in case someone needs to charge - and, if possible, I park so that someone can squeeze in next to me, especially if they're a nice small iMiEV. :)
 
I didn't think of the opposite effect. That is bad news about the Volts setting off their alarms, very uncool.

I noticed the charging stations have a green light at the top of the unit. When your car is done charging, it flashes. That should mean its fair game to use the charger. But, the car is still in the way.

I don't how this is going to work out in the future. I don't know of any place that is going to be willing to put up several dozen charging stations.
 
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