Right-of-Way, to give Power to the People in Seattle!

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com

Right-of-Way, to give Power to the People in Seattle!

Seattle in moving forward to address climate change is using their easement rights all over the city to expand their charging program. Seattle reserves the first 8 feet around your property as an easement that they can come on and pretty much do anything they want. With Seattle DOT EVCROW program, seattle is hoping to push beyond the few thousand charging stations around the city and make it 10's of thousands of charging stations by allowing public and private EV charging infrastructure providers to install EV charging stations on non-residential streets / properties throughout the city to expand the ability for charging of EV / Plug-in Hybrids. 

The goal is to have 30% plus of all registered auto's to be EV's by 2030. This Electric Vehicle Charging in the public right of way pilot program (EVCROW) is about speeding up the process and addressing the complexity to implement EV chargers everywhere. This program will run till July18th 2018 allowing folks to more easily install EV chargers and the City can see how they can streamline and simplify the installation and use of EV chargers.

It looks like people could end up with public chargers on their property that faces the streets so others can charge up. While I am a huge EV fan, not sure I like the city taking over and using my private property as a charge station. What do you think?

Seattle DOT Story