The Future of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Needs Public Input

By SBCAG

Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) wants the public’s help to identify sites for future electric vehicle charging stations. Six California central coast counties have collaborated on an interactive online mapping tool where the public can offer their valuable and necessary input.

The goal is to identify ideal locations for new public charging stations in the six counties between Ventura, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties.  Electric vehicles are essential to the fight against climate change, and more charging stations are needed to recharge vehicles, particularly in rural and traditionally underserved communities.

“Electric cars are the future of transportation and the number of these vehicles on the road continues to grow,” said SBCAG Board Chair, Das Williams. “We want to make charging as effortless as possible and need the public’s help to identify opportunities to make it even better and easier to charge on the fly.”

The information gathered from the interactive online mapping tool will help create the Central Coast Zero Emission Vehicle Strategy.

Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG), Association of Monterey Bay Governments (AMBAG), and San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG), along with Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties have partnered to develop the strategy. 

The public can find more information on the Central Coast Zero Emission Vehicle Strategy at www.centralcoastzevstrategy.com.

The Central Coast Zero Emission Vehicle Strategy needs public input on the interactive mapping tool to accelerate the adoption of zero emission vehicles in the region. There are different types of charging stations and popular locations for them like rest areas, retail venues, restaurants, libraries, community centers, beaches, parks. Feedback on the map identifies the needs of communities.

The interactive mapping tool is live and available to the public through October 2022 at www.bit.ly/CCZEV. A quick video tutorial on how to use the interactive mapping tool is also available at www.bit.ly/InteractiveMapVideo 

SBCAG staff

Written by SBCAG staff

Press releases written by the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG)

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14 Comments

  1. Not sure charging at a gas station would be viable for long distance travelers. Spending hours at the gas station would suck, especially watching other motorists come and fill up in 5 minutes and take off with 300-400 miles of range added. Better to offer chargers at hotels or near a bus stop so EV drivers can stop for the night and/or access public transportation once their 200-300 mile range is used up.

  2. Ok, but the article is about public charging stations like the ones at the downtown lots. I would agree it’s up to the EV makers to provide for adequate charging opportunities IF it wasn’t for the state mandating all new vehicles sold be EV by a certain date. That’s simply a feel good measure for political points if not connected to a concrete plan to increase green electrical generation, distribution, and EV charging stations adequate to handle what is expected to be a marked increase in EV’s on our roads. It’s easy to waive your hand and say all cars sold will be EV’s by a certain date, it take superior intellect, cooperation, and leadership to get our electrical grid into a position that can handle all that new capacity.

  3. Edney : ” families who drive long distances through the night SB to Washington, SB to Salt Lake”.
    SB to Washington : 1100 miles. SB Salt Lake City : 800 miles.
    Your “families” drive at what speed to make it through the night ?
    Once they get there, since they “don’t want to pay for a motel.”, what do they do with their “kids” ? They go back to SB to redo it the next day ?
    They “don’t want to pay for a motel” but paying the $ 250 to $ 300 they spend on gas for just the one way trip (not counting coming back), that’s no problem, right ? Looks like you’re “out of touch” with reality !

  4. FondofSB
    I know these families I wrote of personally.
    I clearly said the families drove through the night. They leave after work, pack food and drinks and drive straight through the night taking turns at the wheel, stopping for gas and bathroom.
    They go to visit relatives and they stay at their relative place. Yes, it gets crowded.
    Gas is a known cost, motels can put the trip out of reach financially, and also cut out the time spent with the relatives
    So did you really think I was writing about people who would pack the kids in the car after work, drive 16 hours to Washington state overnight, only to immedaitely hang a U-turn and drive back home? I have never met anyone ever who would do that on purpose and if I did, I’d think they need their brain donated to science so whatever mental illness caused that behavior could be cured.

  5. I’m a big fan of that kind of technology
    Great article.
    My main concerns are the cost per mile of lane multiplied by number of lanes and the current inadequate capacity to produce enough electricity in summer months and the power grid.
    I am assuming the state or SCE will be billing drivers per fraction of mile using transponders. Will that be more expensive than gasoline?
    At $1.9M per mile per lane, it would cost $180M to electrify the 101 from SB to Rincon
    How is that much electricity going to be generated and delivered? That is a ton of power
    We’ll know if our government is serious about EV’s when they stop the talk and the Soviet style 5 year plans and start building things. Issuing edicts like X% of cars sold in CA have to be EV’s is the easy part. but ever notice how when you ask where the electricity is going to come from, all you’ll hear is solar and wind?
    Last, some of us here are out of touch regarding near term edicts and the current state of the technology. I know quite a few hispanic families who drive long distances through the night SB to Washington, SB to Salt Lake, SB to Zacatecas, with the kids sleeping in the car. They don’t want to have to stop every 150 miles for 15 minutes recharging, and they don’t want to pay for a motel.
    Imagine the lines at a gas station if everyone took 15 minutes. According to this study, the average time to fill up with gasoline is 2 minutes.
    https://www.api.org/oil-and-natural-gas/consumer-information/consumer-resources/staying-safe-pump#:~:text=It%20may%20be%20a%20temptation,be%20discharged%20at%20the%20nozzle.
    Imagine the size that station would have to be to accomodate electricity for everyone on the road. (7.5X)
    The average Interstate or main US highway Recharging station would be a big as the empty Sears parking lot at La Cumbre Plaza and probably need its own substation

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