Having an electric car isn’t a license to park anywhere

Question: I had knee surgery recently and got a temporary placard allowing me to park in handicapped stalls. I have noticed that a lot of people who have hybrid cars are parking in handicapped stalls, even though they don’t have a placard. Is that OK?

Q: I’m noticing more and more electric vehicles parking in the disability parking spaces at the mall and other locations. Sometimes the disability parking spaces are next to the EV spaces that have electric chargers, but I didn’t think they were interchangeable. Are they?

Answer: No and no.

“Having an electric vehicle does not convey any privilege to park in a stall reserved for a person with a disability unless the driver/rider also has a disabled person parking placard,” said Francine Wai, executive director of the state Department of Health’s Disability and Communication Access Board.

State law does require a specific number of stalls reserved for EVs in parking lots over a certain size; this count is separate from the number of parking spaces required to be accessible to drivers and passengers with disabilities.

“There is a requirement for EV stalls to be accessible,” Wai said, but they need not be reserved solely for disabled motorists and passengers. The EV stalls are marked with the green EV sign, not the familiar wheelchair logo (usually blue and white) that is the international symbol of accessibility. “This is to prevent people with a disabled person parking permit from mistakenly parking in an EV stall if they do not have an EV,” Wai explained.

Accessible parking stalls for people with disabilities are required to be near the entrance of a facility, while EV stalls are not. “They need to be near a power source, which is often adjacent to a building, but not near the entrance,” Wai noted. “In fact, since an EV often takes a long time to charge, using a prime real estate spot near the entrance is often not good customer service because the stall can be occupied for a long time without turnover.”

You can find more information in DCAB’s pamphlet “How to Design an Accessible Parking Space,” which covers federal and state requirements for disability parking and also includes a few details (on Page 6) about electric vehicle charging stations and adjacent parking spaces. You can see the pamphlet at 808ne.ws/2at2GQh.

“The bottom line is that you can park in an accessible parking space only if you have a permit. You can park in an EV stall only if you are in an EV,” Wai said. “A person who has a disabled person parking permit and who also has or rides in an EV can park in both, but for different reasons.”

Update

The pedestrian island at Atkinson Drive and Ala Moana Boulevard was cleaned up Friday, the state coordinator on homelessness confirmed. Scott Morishige said that a homeless man and woman decided on their own to relocate very early Friday, after consistent outreach by social service agencies over the past few weeks. Another man who had been living there entered an emergency shelter the previous week, at the urging of outreach workers, he said. Later Friday morning a crew with the Hawaii Department of Transportation’s Highways Division “noticed during a routine inspection … that the area was abandoned and conducted cleanup operations in the area to remove remaining trash and debris,” Morishige said. The situation was the subject of Kokua Line columns last week, based on questions from concerned readers.

Mahalo

Thank you to Kona International Airport’s security officers and first responders who came to our son’s aid when he became very ill on the Fourth of July. Thank you also to Hawaiian Airlines for recognizing our situation and arranging for an expedited flight home to Oahu. We are forever grateful to all of you for your professional action and assistance. — Thankful Mom and Dad

Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.