EV Cash Cow: One Charging Spot Generates $27,000 In Fines

In Raleigh, You Take Your Chances Parking In An EV Spot With Your Gasser!

So you are worried about electric cars not paying their fair share of tax revenue via the pump?  Doesn’t seem to be an issue for Raleigh, North Carolina, who come well equipped with an able meter-maid contingent.

North Carolina Charges Pure EV Owners $100 Annually To Driver Their Vehicle

Despite only around 3,000 pure electric vehicles in the state (which are also now required to pay a $100 annual registration fee), some North Carolina cities are finding out what a cash boon EVs can be.

In Raleigh, one space alone (#378 on Fayetteville street to be specific) has netted $27,000 in fines thanks to being “ICEd” over the past 12 month; North Carolina EV parking fines account for as much revenue as the entire state has brought in for registration fees.

Why so much?  It’s a premium downtown spot and if you happen to park your non plug-in car in it, you get a $50 fine, considerably more than the $20 fee for an expired meter.

For the year about 540 tickets have been given out according to the NewsObserver, that is around 1.5 every day and 7 times as many tickets as other curbside spots on the block.

The reason for the high ticket frequency?  Mostly due to the ease of which the infraction can be spotted by authorities – last we checked a Ford F150 didn’t plug in.

Source: Inside EV's 

Gas Cars Parked In One Electric-Car Spot Earn Raleigh $27,000 A Year

EV parking sign, Portland OR

The problem of gasoline cars parking in spaces reserved for plug-in electric cars to recharge at is nothing new.

It's known as "ICE-ing," referring to cars with internal combustion engines parking where they shouldn't.

But the problem has proved to be lucrative for Raleigh, North Carolina.

That city earned $27,000 in the year ended November 30 from parking tickets on one single electric-car charging spot, located on the city's busy downtown Fayetteville Street.

That represents 540 tickets, at $50 apiece, placed on gasoline vehicles that ignored the signs warning that the spot was reserved for electric cars.

MetLife electric-car charging station for employee use - Dayton, Ohio

They also ignored the presence of a 240-Volt Level 2 charging station at the curb as well, apparently.

And as the Charlotte News Observer noted in an article, more gasoline cars were ticketed for parking that space than there were electric cars that actually used it to recharge.

Raleigh has a total of 23 public parking spaces reserved for electric-car charging, out of a total of several thousand.

But the space on Fayetteville Street--known as No 378--generated parking tickets seven times as frequently as any other space produced the lower $20 fine for an expired meter.

Electric vehicle parking by Flickr user aaron_anderer, used under Creative Commons license

To address complaints that the warning sign wasn't obvious enough, the city moved the sign closer to the street.

Part of the issue may be training: Although it installed its first electric-car charging stations in 2009, the city only began to issue tickets for ICE-ing after complaints by city councilperson Gaylord Bonner, who drives a Nissan Leaf.

The city plans to investigate better markings for the spot, including painting spots a different color--as they are at a retail-office-residential center called North Hills.

And advocates note that Raleigh's $50 fine is far less than those in other cities for parking in handicapped spaces; in Illinois, those fines range from $500 to $2,500.

Still, cities scrambling to boost local revenues in the face of a stagnant economy and a surly electorate may find easy cash in aggressive ticketing of ICE-d charging station parking.

At least temporarily, that is, until the word gets out.

Source: Green Car Reports