Portland (OR) approves electric-vehicle friendly plan

http://www.examiner.com/x-14333-Green-Transportation-Examiner~y2010m7d22-Portland-approves-electricvehicle-friendly-plan

The Portland Oregon city council voted yesterday to approve policies meant to speed up electric vehicle adoption. This adopts proposals in a report titled "Electric Vehicles: The Portland Way". Oregon is a hotbed of electric vehicle interest, and expects to see an influx of nearly a thousand Nissan LEAF's in the nationwide rollout later this year.

Portland is looking for a combination of gains:
Creation of job opportunities in the electric vehicle sector,
Reduction in carbon emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, and other environmental effects, in order to satisfy Portland's 2009 Climate Action Plan (goals: reduce carbon emissions 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030, and to reduce the lifecycle green-house gas emissions of transportation fuels by 20 percent by 2030)
Improvements in environmental and economic per
formance of Portland's municipal vehicle fleet
Make use of Oregon (state) tax incentives
The plan contains a comprehensive multi-pronged strategy to ease hurdles to EV adoption.

Streamline permitting process: It's widely recognized that installing an EV charging station can involve a hassle filled trip through obtaining permits. Oregon has adopted policies which Portland is adopting to streamline the permit process, in most cases.
Improve access to EV charging stations: One incumbent advantage of gasoline powered vehicles is the existing recharging infrastructure. Electric vehicles also need a recharging infrastructure to enable taking trips longer than a diameter around ones home. The policy recommends installing publicly available EV charging stations using city "Right of Way". It recognizes that not everybody has the off-street parking to install a charging station at home, and they intend to partner with the Zipcar service to provide access to fast recharge stations. They're also looking into installing EV charging facilities at mass transit stations.

Parking enforcement at EV charging stations: It can be eminently frustrating to arrive at a parking space you know is reserved for EV charging, but find an internal combustion engine vehicle hogging the space. This is to be addressed with consistent signage and with enforcement of parking rules. They also will enforce a "parking hours" requirement so that EV's parked in the EV charging spots are actually being charged.

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> Parking enforcement at EV charging stations: It can be eminently frustrating
> to arrive at a parking space you know is reserved for EV charging, but find an
> internal combustion engine vehicle hogging the space. This is to be addressed
> with consistent signage and with enforcement of parking rules.

Just posted in another thread that the above is very important and this ...

> They also will enforce a "parking hours" requirement so that EV's parked in
> the EV charging spots are actually being charged.

... is an aspect that I'd completely overlooked - glad that Portland didn't!