I don't think you'll get any traction on any law that requires businesses to provide EV charging. It is a courtesy. As such, I think you'll find the regulations to be loose on purpose.
I'm not suggesting there be a law that requires businesses to have EV charging. I never wrote that. The businesses that do decide to offer EV charging are doing so to encourage people with EVs to come to their location and do business with them. What I am suggesting is that knowing what the current law is in the state of FL that if a business offers an EV charging station that they mark the spaces properly so they can be used for what they are intended for.
I didn't see any regulations that required the spaces to be marked. The sections you quoted said only that there would be fines for improperly parking there if they are designated. I actually looked at the FL vehicle codes and followed the pointers and never saw any requirement that the spaces must be designated if there is a charger nearby.
And I wasn't intending to imply that you had asked for legislation, I was trying to point out that without such legislation, some of the things you were indicating should be done cannot be enforced or expected. The "half assed efforts" as you pointed out are all that I think we can "expect" at this time, but we can and should let them know how we perceive those efforts and in providing that feedback "honey works better than vinegar".
In particular, you did say "once you put a charger in a parking space ..." and I am trying to point out that the precondition of that statement is "once a business that isn't really required to provide EV charging *decides* to put in a charger" and, when you acknowledge that their decision is an important part of this equation and that they can decide not to provide a charger in the first place, any statement that ends in "then you must do it this way" provides yet another obstacle that balances the equation in favor of the businesses choosing to not put the chargers in at all. And that results in EV owners finding fewer places to charge should they ever need it in an emergency, or to facilitate a daily sequence of trips that wouldn't otherwise be possible without on-the-go charging in a particular location.
I once made it home due to the presence of a Walgreens that provided a charger at $2/hour. If they had been forced to reduce that rate, that charger would not have been there and I might have been stranded.
As far as regulating the charging rates; if your happy paying random prices for a charge or paying outrageous prices because you're at their mercy then fine, but do the math.
I have done the math quite extensively in other forums (most notably a week long discussion with the EV group at work over the rates that were being proposed for our chargers at work and how fair they were to various EVs from Teslas to electric bicycles).
I am not happy to pay $2/hour to charge an EV due to the costs. But, I am happy to find a charger in the wild where I might not expect to find one because a business was given the choice to charge $2/hour and that flipped the decision on whether or not they would provide a charger at all in the first place. That was my point.
I would love to see lower costs and switching more to $/kwh and encourage businesses to just provide it for free as a convenience given the marginal difference to their operating costs, but I don't expect that at this point in the game. It will come when EVs get more popular and competition for attracting their business takes off, but I don't see it happening now unless legislation gets involved (and, CA may be heading there with some recent legislation they are considering which is good news).
If you want more charging stations, then you need to be thankful for the businesses that are currently embracing the new direction, and be thankful on their terms. That doesn't mean you should patronize the expensive chargers, but scowling at them and throwing legislation at them will reduce adoption rates of what is not considered a required service. Eventually, as the EV market grows - on the heels of better EV choices in the marketplace and businesses who report having felt the warm glow of having provided the stations - there will be more competition and the impression that providing the stations with better availability and lower prices attracts (thankful) customers.
In the meantime, every business you make feel antagonized for providing the new services is an obstacle to finding more stations...
So having said that, why in the world should I be thankful? I'm not being an antagonist, but what I am doing is trying to educate people when I come in contact with them.
You should not be thankful for bad pricing, perhaps "thankful" was a poor choice of words there for me. You might want to be gracious when you approach them about whether the service they provided is attracting your business or not. They may decide to change their pricing policies and, again, "honey works better than vinegar" in a situation like that.
If you ever find yourself in a sparse part of town and low on charge, then in that case you might be "thankful" that Walgreens decided to put in chargers at all in the first place - even if they charge $2/hour for the privilege of the emergency save...
The vast majority of people are receptive but once in a while I'll run into a person like the employee of the Best Western. I don't usually say anything but in this case I made a stink because 1. She was such a bitch 2. I was a paying guest of the hotel 3. I don't put up with any body's bullshit. I'm not somebody's whipping boy or doormat.
I guess I wasn't there so I can't speak to the way you were treated. It sounds like they started it, and everyone deserves respect, so I salute you standing up for yourself. But, in the long run, anything you pointed out in the context of such an interaction likely got ignored because of that context, regardless of who was right. I've had to smile my way through a number of affronts because I wanted to achieve a goal, and it isn't pretty and it isn't easy and I don't always do it. But, when I walk away after giving someone or a business a piece of my mind, I feel better, but I realize that I missed an opportunity to make a difference.
