12 hours Ago By By James Salazar | Examiner staff writer |
San Francisco unveiled its first two curbside electric vehicle charging stations Friday, as city officials promised more are coming in a pilot dedicated to expanding infrastructure access for residents. EV drivers can now access stations at 55 Fillmore St. , where two parking spaces in front of the meeting hall for IBEW Local 6, the union that represents electrical workers for the City and County of San Francisco, are now reserved for charging.
City departments collaborated with New York-based It’selectric to install the stations, which officials said required minimal streetwork. The charging stations are available every day between 8 a.m.
and 9 p.m., and sessions are limited to two hours for drivers who do not have a residential parking permit for the area.
Duboce Park residents can charge their cars overnight and for more than two hours. Users are required to bring their own detachable cables, which drivers can also receive by signing up through the It’selectric website . “The strategy of only doing charges through garages is not going to work if we’re trying to get everybody who has a car switching over to an electric car,” said Supervisor Rafael Mandelman , whose district includes Duboce Park.
According to city data, about 70% of residents lack access to garages , which Mandelman said hinders the adoption of more vehicles. At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Mandelman said that he would be requesting a hearing to draft a feasibility plan for the broader adoption of curbside chargers. The City aims to add 1,700 EV chargers of all varieties by 2030 .
Duboce Park’s chargers will allow officials to gather data on metrics like usage and demand, Mandelman said. Tyrone Jue, the director of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment , said that transitioning people away from fossil-fuel-burning vehicles would have numerous benefits, such as reducing the amount of particulate matter in the air . Jue said creating a sustainable future would also necessitate investing in public transportation and other cleaner methods of transportation.
“That’s going to require all of us coming together,” Jue said. “Not in these individual solutions being the one solution that just solves everything, but by bringing all these systems together.” Charging rates are currently $1.
85 per hour from 9 p.m. to 8 a.
m. and $3.50 per hour from 8 a.
m. to 9 p.m, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency .
Transportation officials said that property owners where chargers are located will receive a portion of the revenue generated. San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Director of Transportation Julie Kirschbaum said the first two chargers coming online means that drivers will be able to have even more choices when they “ make clean transportation choices.” She said the new chargers are meant to complement existing infrastructure in agency-owned garages, in addition to providing the aforementioned driver insights.
Residents can also request a charger for their block by signing up through an It’selectric waitlist . “This pilot is really going to allow us to learn and really figure out the right way to bring this technology to scale,” Kirschbaum said..
