Update June 24th 2011 Electric car parking

http://www.staradvertiser.com/columnists/20110624_Electric_cars_may_park_without_fees_at_public_lots.html

QUESTION: Regarding your May 12 column on electric cars (is.gd/kokualine05122010), why are electric cars refused free parking at the city's Blaisdell Center parking lot?

Act 290 requires free parking in any state or county parking facility. However, the Blaisdell's attendant charged us $5 to park when we attended the Home, Garden & Remodeling Show. We explained that we believed the law required electric vehicles to get free parking, but the attendant vehemently demanded the $5 fee. She said she'd had the "same problem" the day before with another electric vehicle owner and that her supervisor had "clarified" that the law does not apply to that parking lot. What is going on? Also, where exactly in the Hawaii Revised Statutes is the law that covers free parking for electric cars?

ANSWER: You should have been allowed to park for free, said Louise Kim McCoy, press secretary for Mayor Peter Carlisle. "The city is aware of Act 290, but because the parking lot at the Blaisdell Center is operated by a concession, there may have been some confusion, which has since been clarified," she said.

Owners of electric vehicles that have the proper electric vehicle license plate, who attended the Home, Garden & Remodeling Show and who can demonstrate they were charged for parking, will be reimbursed, Kim McCoy said.

Act 290 became Sections 291-71 and 291-72 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

That law says private lots will also have to provide spaces for electric vehicles, albeit not necessarily free parking: "All public, private, and government parking facilities that are available for use by the general public and have at least one hundred parking spaces shall designate one per cent of parking spaces exclusively for electric vehicles by December 31, 2011. … When the number of registered electric vehicles in the State reaches five thousand, the spaces designated for electric vehicles shall increase to two per cent of parking spaces. The number of spaces designated for electric vehicles shall continue to increase by one per cent for each additional five thousand electric vehicles registered in the State until the percentage reaches ten per cent of parking spaces."

Beginning Jan. 1, those parking a nonelectric vehicle in a space designated for electric vehicles will receive a warning. Beginning July 1, 2013, doing so will be deemed a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of $50 to $100.

From the StarAdvertiser Kokua Line Re: Parking 5/12/2011

http://www.staradvertiser.com/columnists/20110512_Bus_seats_temporarily_blocked_because_of_ADA_requirements.html

Question: Regarding your April 29 column on electric cars: Can you let your readers know that both the parking provisions and the HOV provisions of Act 290 are still in effect? And, it’s not just parking in metered spaces that’s free — it’s parking in any state or county parking facility.

Answer: You are correct on both counts.

The state Department of Transportation had told us there never was a “perk” regarding electric vehicles using high-occupancy-vehicle lanes and pointed out the failed attempt in the Legislature this year to allow “EVs” that could go at least 55 mph to use those HOV lanes.

However, state Rep. K. Mark Takai, who drives an electric vehicle, said the “law is very clear” on the HOV use, as well as the “total access” to parking at state and county facilities, not just at metered stalls. The intent of Act 290 is that there should be free parking in all those facilities, including the airport and convention center, he said.

Asked again about the HOV exemption, the DOT’s Highways Division acknowledged that electric vehicles are allowed to use HOV lanes without any restriction.

“Only Section 5 (dealing with a waiver of vehicle registration and license plate fees) was sunsetted in 2002,” a DOT spokesman said.

However, “It’s important to note that Act 290 only applies to 100 percent electric vehicles that have a special ‘Electric Vehicle’ license plate attached to it … but does not apply to gas-electric hybrids or alternative-fuel vehicles,” he said.

With this special license plate, electric vehicles are allowed to use HOV lanes, as well as park for free in all state and county facilities, he said. The free parking does not extend to federal facilities.

At the end of 2010, there were 271 electric vehicles registered in the state: 152 in the City and County of Honolulu, 41 in Hawaii County, 12 in Kauai County and 66 in Maui County, according to the DOT.

I'm selling a DCDC converter I don't need

No Gas

I was shown this car located at Interisland Solar a couple of years ago. I was back there today and took a couple of pictures. This would have been one of the first electric cars in Oahu. The Licence plate reads "NO GAS"