I'm not thrilled about it, but I do see some benefits of this design.

As you mentioned, this appears to be designed as home charging for people that can't charge at home. More specifically, it's for people who park on the street. This has been a chicken-and-egg problem for a while.

Full charging stations are expensive to install, and probably wouldn't get much usage in a residential area. Then there's the maintenance- one of the biggest complaints about EVs is how frequently charging stations are broken. The more pieces there are, the more expensive it is to install, and the more frequently something breaks.

These posts look dead simple. That makes them easy to manufacture and have minimal maintenance. It also reduces vandalism/theft concerns. Most notably, you carry the cord with you. If it breaks, you handle the replacement. It also means there are no concerns about compatibility or adapters- you have the right cord for your car, whether it's J1772, NACS, or even CHAdeMO.

Finally, these aren't random charging stations that you might only visit a few times per year. They are for your residence, which means your needs/usage probably won't change much until you move. An app for billing makes sense in this case, and makes it similar to home charging that just gets included in your electric bill.

(FWIW, I despise the random public chargers that expect you to install their app, in a parking garage with no signal, just to charge one time. I make an effort to avoid those on principle, opting for ones with a CC reader)

In Europe everyone just carries a cable. It helps to prevent theft, damage and clutter.

I hope this is what they're actually referring to when they say "charger".

Realistically I'd like to see more wireless chargers.

Usually the driver plugs in is probably why

It would be annoying to walk around every time

Not to mention how much harder to reach out the (driver's) window to shut the charge port door (Bolt EV) when you drive away with it open lol

Exactly, like, why did everybody decide to get cute and move them around?

This is Boston, which does invest quite a bit in transit and walkability, and will continue to do so. But that doesn’t make cars disappear overnight.

BTW, one of the recent changes in the direction was to mandate multifamily zoning near transit in every community served by mbta. This really deserves to be talked about more as the impact is just now being felt:

• https://www.mass.gov/info-details/multi-family-zoning-requirement-for-mbta-communities

You have to do what you can. I think a lot of people would rather see that but that's a massive investment you have to convince large masses of people to agree to pay for, which is historically futile. This approach requires zero investment from taxpayers.

I agree that we need better rail and mass transit along with more pedestrian-friendly planning overall. Some benefit from electric vehicles, including busses and trucks is less polluted air on the routes shared with bicycles and pedestrians.

Thaas no R in Bastaan