The BART Board of Directors unanimously voted Thursday to approve tentative plans to expand access to electric vehicle charging ports at the transit agency’s parking lots.
BART currently has electric vehicle charging stations at its Warm Springs/South Fremont and Lafayette stations. The parking lots at BART’s Milpitas and Berryessa/North San Jose stations, which are owned by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, also have electric vehicle charging ports.
But with ownership of more vehicle parking lots than any other rail transit agency in the state, BART intends to place more charging ports throughout the system in anticipation of a market shift toward the increased use of electric vehicles.
“The assumption is that widespread EV adoption is one-to-five years out,” BART Sustainability Project Manager Monica Meagher told the board Thursday. “When we see widespread adoption, there’s an absolute need for more publicly accessible, easy charging; we heard that consistently from all external stakeholders.”
BART received feedback on its electric vehicle charging expansion from more than a dozen outside groups, including transportation researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and UC Davis, environmental groups like the National Resources Defense Council and transportation and sustainability officials with the city of Oakland and Contra Costa County.
The city of Oakland’s Department of Transportation signaled its support in a letter to the board, arguing that more electric vehicle charging stations are crucial in disadvantaged parts of the city such as the West Oakland, Fruitvale and Coliseum BART stations.
According to Oakland officials, the expansion of electric vehicle charging infrastructure will also help the city reach its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the city by 56 percent by 2030.
BART officials are expected to begin development of an implementation plan for expanding the installation of charging stations and, ultimately, return to the board for final approval.
“Although we’re still in the early stages of EV adoption, BART as a clean-energy leader is setting the framework for the future with this policy,” BART Board President Mark Foley said in a statement. “If people need to drive themselves to a BART station, let’s find ways to encourage them to do so in a zero-emission vehicle.”
With all the crime going on, would you park your $100K Tesla at the BART station? Perhaps at the affluent cities as mentioned in the article.
Who foots the bill for installation of these stations? I expect that when a gas station installs new tanks, the owner of the station (either proprietor or oil company?) is responsible for all costs. Are we taxpayers paying for installation of these charging stations, or is Tesla on the hook? My limited understanding is the cost to install a station is $6-13K. So if this is covered by we taxpayers, I expect the cost per station to be somewhere in the range of $25K, for the ability of someone to park their Tesla there for 8 hours while they are away.
So one parks their car all day at a plug that can’t be used by others once their battery is fully charged. Makes sense to me. Another government boondoggle.
At what cost?
Those ‘charging station parking spots’ take up more room than a regular parking spot.
What does it cost to run power to spots in an existing parking structure?
What does the actual charging equipment cost and how often will it need to be replaced?
How much vandalism will these ‘stations’ experience?
Will the above costs be included in the cost to charge, or will they be passed onto everyone else?
I would love to have BART give an honest and direct answer to these questions.
Get an electric car or Climate Change will kill us all.
I wonder how much Bart will charge those drivers for all that electricity.
When will others drivers get free gas?
Discrimination much?
And what happens when there’s not enough electricity for our homes but cars at Bart can get charged for free?
Why does your government put all its eggs in the one basket of electricity?
There are a lot of alternatives to electricity but no one talks about those.
What will people do when electricity costs more than gas?
C’mon – you know they’re not interested in such mundane things as facts. No politician is, has or will be.
If they tell you otherwise, they’re lying.
I would of thought the people who are buying the electric vehicles did so to avoid things like taking BART
Exactly. And why put them in a disadvantaged area where no one has an electric vehicle because they are still too expensive to the below average consumer. Bet your butt I’m not driving to west Oakland Bart to park an expensive electric vehicle with no protection. Just to spend more money on electricity and BART fare than the bridge toll with a free upgrade of car break in.