As Climate Week approaches next week in San Francisco, it was fitting for the city’s transportation agency’s board of directors to approve a permit program on Tuesday that will eventually allow for curbside electric vehicle charging.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (SFMTA) board approved the Curbside Electric Charging Program, which would allow third-party electric vehicle charging operators to apply for permits with the transportation agency to install chargers in the city. The new program is an effort to address the needs of residents who cannot charge their vehicles at home.
Amar Bhardwaj, the assistant chief of infrastructure, climate, and mobility in the mayor’s office, said the program was a priority for Mayor Daniel Lurie. The mayor announced the permit program last month.
“There are a lot of folks in the city who are renters or who live in multifamily housing, who don’t have access to charging and don’t have the opportunity to have an EV because of that, and so we see this as a real opportunity to improve on that,” Bhardwaj said.
The program will fall under the SFMTA’s Taxis, Access & Mobility Services, which would issue the permits to qualified operators through an application process. Once approved, operators must also work with other city departments, as needed, for site-specific permits from Public Works, the Department of Building Inspection, and the Public Utilities Commission.
Kate Toran, the director of Taxis, Access & Mobility Services at the SFMTA, said there will be community outreach for the proposed sites and that the operator is responsible for construction and for establishing the electrical connection once the operator receives its final permit.
There will be several principles as to where the charges will be installed, Toran said. The SFMTA wants to focus the installation of chargers in areas of the city with a high concentration of renters and multibuilding complexes where charging stations might be unavailable for residents. The program aims to avoid installing chargers in commercial corridors, as they are slower and can take hours to charge a vehicle.
Additionally, chargers will be excluded from daylighted curbs, Muni bus stops, color-curbed zones, narrow sidewalks, specific bike lanes, and future bikeway corridors. Toran added that EV owners charging at a curbside station would still need to follow parking rules, such as street-sweeping restrictions or those in residential permit parking areas.
The permit program still needs approval from the Board of Supervisors.
A timeline from the SFMTA shows they plan to launch the application process this summer, while installation of approved charging stations could begin in the spring and continue through the summer of next year. The city has a goal of installing 100 curbside charging stations by 2030.
A pilot program is already underway in the city with three charging operators, It’s Electric, Voltpost, and Urban EV. Last year, the city launched the first curbside chargers from It’s Electric in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood.
Last month, the board approved installing five Urban EV chargers in the Dogpatch neighborhood along parts of Tennessee Street.
