Andrew Maykuth reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer:

A city task force has recommended scrapping Philadelphia’s contentious curbside electric-vehicle parking program while stepping up efforts to create more off-street charging stations accessible to the public.


The Electric Vehicle Policy Task Force, created last year after City Council voted by 11-6 to impose a moratorium on the program that allows EV owners to install a private curbside charger on city streets, posted a draft report Friday that recommends abandoning the 11-year-old program.


The 16-member panel included Councilmen David Oh and Mark Squilla, who sponsored the moratorium, and its report reflects their view that the curbside EV parking program is not sustainable in the long term.


Fewer than 70 electric-vehicle owners have signed up for the parking privilege, which requires the owner to pay an annual fee and the expense of installing the charger. But that was enough to trigger a backlash in parking-starved areas like Society Hill and Fairmount, where owners of conventional vehicles struggled to find an open space while electric-vehicle slots stood vacant.


The report says the program “is not reliably accessible to the public, it is not scalable, it does not meet the needs of EV owners without access to curbside parking, and it has had limited effectiveness in encouraging more EV use.”


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