Whether you’re meeting up to carpool, catching the bus, or simply making a pit stop to stretch your legs and enjoy the scenery, Caltrans Park & Ride facilities are a convenient place to stash your car while you take a break or continue on your journey.
By promoting ridesharing and use of public transit, Park & Rides reduce the number of vehicles on our roads, helping cut traffic congestion and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—but at SDG&E, we think there’s a way we can help make Park & Rides even more convenient and environmentally friendly—electric vehicle (EV) charging.
Let Your Ride Soak up the Sun
With more than half of last year’s EV sales taking place in California, it’s clear that the Golden State’s passion for green technology is only growing. But as interest in clean technologies grow, are we doing everything we can to support the growth and adoption of these innovations?
That’s exactly what we at SDG&E are aiming to accomplish through a set of proposed projects to build EV charging at public locations like Caltrans Park & Rides.
If approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, SDG&E will install 88 charging stations at four Park & Ride facilities along San Diego freeways, making EV charging a more convenient option for the millions of drivers that travel on our highways each year.
Park. Charge. Relax.
Working with Caltrans and skilled International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) contractors, the stations will be designed to eliminate one potential barrier on the road to driving on sunshine—convenient charging options.
Equipped with both standard Level 2 Chargers, as well as DC Fast Chargers, drivers will be able to either plug in for a quick charge—about 80 percent of a full charge in under an hour—or rest easy knowing they’ll return from their day out or at the office to a fully charged clean-driving machine.
Drivers using the Park & Ride chargers will be provided with grid integrated rates that keep fueling costs down by incentivizing charging when energy prices are low, while also maintaining grid reliability at times when renewable energy isn’t abundant.
If successfully implemented, it is estimated 120 EVs will recharge at these stations on any given day, cutting annual GHG emissions by more than 2,600 metric tons—the equivalent of the carbon removed by more than 2,500 acres of forest growing for an entire year.
Living the Clean Air Dream
Working together, we have the power to transform San Diego’s transportation sector from the number one source of harmful air emissions into the main driver of a clean air future.
This article is part of a series taking a closer look at seven projects proposed by SDG&E to increase access to electric vehicle charging infrastructure as we work to clean the air for a healthier tomorrow. Learn more about our plans to electrify transportation and clean our air, here.