Laura Laker 

Highly charged: complaints as electric car points block city pavements

In the rush to accommodate increasing numbers of electric cars, some cities are letting bulky charging stations take space from pedestrians
  
  

An electric car charging point blocks a pavement in London.
An electric car charging point blocks a pavement in London. Photograph: Laura Laker

Cities across the world are rushing to install charging points to encourage and keep up with demand from increasing numbers of electric vehicles. By the end of last year there were almost 600,000 street charging points globally.

But while some cities, such as Paris, are introducing charging points inconspicuously, many others are not. In some areas of London chargers have been taking over pavements and blocking pedestrians.

“With traffic and poor air quality affecting many people … we need fewer vehicles, not just cleaner vehicles,” says Rachel White, senior policy and political advisor at sustainable transport group Sustrans. “Making it harder to walk and reducing access on our already crowded pavements doesn’t help more people to make every day journeys by foot.”

Any reduction in pavement width make it harder for people with disabilities to move around, adds disability charity Transport For All.

In Britain, the government is offering incentives for charging points and many local authorities are embracing the technology.

Across London some charging points are taking space away from pedestrians and blocking the way for those with buggies, prams and wheelchairs.

In Barcelona, this large-scale petrol pump-style electric vehicle charger has been mounted on the pavement.

And in Norwich, one electric car user resorted to parking on the pavement when the charging point was blocked by a bus.

Other cities, such as Paris (left), are taking a more pedestrian-friendly approach.

Although London is not doing it all wrong. These chargers in Islington have been neatly installed in lamp posts.

In US cities, many charging points are in car parks rather than pavements.

And this solar-powered charging point near Segovia in Spain claims it can charge six electric vehicles in an hour.

Sweden and China are taking a different approach and opening roads that charge electric vehicles as they travel, reducing the need for on-street charging units.

Meanwhile, some electric vehicle owners are resorting to dangling cables out of windows.

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