Electric Car (EV) Charging Stations in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas

This blog lists my review of the best EV charging locations* (a.k.a as EVSEs) in Pittsburgh, PA and surroundings. This is not a comprehensive list of stations. If you are looking for a more comprehensive list of stations, the top authority, in my experience, is plugshare (also available as iOS and Android mobile applications). Plugshare beats the other popular option: chargepoint by far, in terms of being up to date, providing helpful (e.g. picture, location, number and type of chargers) and accurate information as well as user reviews/comments. Plugshare lets EV owners "check into" a location (to let other users the charger is being used), as well as sharing private chargers.

* To get some terminology out of the way: the proper name for a EV charger or EV charging station is an EVSE: "Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment". The charger is actually on board your electric vehicle, and hence called the "on-board charger".

Dowtown Pittsburgh (including North Shore)

1. Grant Street Transportation Center - Red Garage

• Pros:
• VIP Parking. The chargers are located immediately after entering the lot.
• There are FOUR (4) Level 2 chargers and they are free to use (with your paid parking)! From the times I've parked there I've only seen 2 cars using them at most. Each charger has its own parking spot. 
• At the time of this writing (Jan 2016), this station had a PlugShare of 10.
• Cons:
• Parking is expensive, $16 for a 6+ hrs on a weekday. However this is typical for parking downtown. Also as a downtown commuter, this parking rarely gets full.
• You MUST enter the RED garage. There is an adjacent BLUE garage that is almost identical but they are not connected. The blue garage does not have any chargers at the time of this writing.

2. Carnegie Science Center

• Pros:
• Provides VIP Parking (directly across from the parking booth). Even when the lot is full and cars are sent to their adjacent lot, ask the attendant if the charger is available and they will let you in. 
• It's free (included in the cost of the parking): $3 for Carnegie Museums Members, $5 for non-members and $7 for commuter parking.
• Cons:
• There is only ONE charger.
• Even at $7 is the best deal for commuter parking with charging included downtown, however there is no guarantee it will be available for you.
• Only convenient if you are visiting the museum.

3. Convention Center

• Pros:
• Free (included with the cost of parking).
• Convenient location for downtown destinations.
• Cons:
• Parking is expensive (~$20 on a weekday)
• Only 2 stations and they will usually be taken on weekdays, so you cannot rely on them being available on business hours. 
• They are generally available on weekends.

Others worth mentioning:

1. First Avenue Garage
• This is likely the least expensive commuter parking ($12 for 4hr+) downtown with a free charge included. Although the garage is at one end of downtown, it is right next to the T station.
2. USX Tower Garage
• Charger is NOT free (and somewhat expensive). Parking is also very expensive. I believe there is only one charger here, hence the low Plugshare score (4.6), based on the comments many users have not been able to charge because it was already taken.
3. Station Square Garage
• Similar to the USX Tower charger, this would be very convenient except it is not free and there is only one charger.

East (Oakland, Monroeville)

1. Carnegie Mellon University Electric Garage

• Pros:
• 8 Level 2 charging stations + 1 Tesla HPWC.
• FREE to charge and FREE to park (up to 4 hours).
• Convenient location (Oakland - in between Carnegie Mellon and University of Pittsburgh)
• Open to the public, not just Carnegie Mellon University staff/students
• Cons:
• Before 2015 the Electric Garage parking spots were available to the public. This means that you could park here after you were done charging or if there were no charging spots available. The parking spots (not next to the chargers) in the lot now require a parking permit which is available only to CMU students/staff. It is still pretty convenient if you only need to park for 4 hrs or less while charging.
• In spite of having 8 stations, CMU students/staff love EV cars, so it is very common to find all chargers taken on regular business hours.

2. Bakery Square

• Pros:
• 4 ChargePoint Stations. This means you can check via the ChargePoint app if the stations are in use.
• FREE (included in the cost of parking). This parking lot, as I remember is not very expensive and I believe it is free during evenings and weekends.
• Cons:
• This is the parking lot for Google Pittsburgh, so even though they have 4 stations the 4 stations may be in use on regular business hours.

3. Carnegie Museum of Natural History

• Pros:
• FREE (included with parking). Parking is relatively expensive, i.e. within average for the Oakland area.
• VIP parking, located very close to Museum back entrance.
• Convenient location.
• Cons:
• Only one station available.
• Very close to the Electric Garage, so I would park at the Garage unless all stations were taken.

4. Pittsburgh Zoo

• Pros:
• FREE!
• VIP Parking! Even on a crowded day, if the station is available, you can get a parking spot very close to the Zoo entrance.
• Cons:
• Only one station available

Others worth mentioning:

1. Giant Eagle Monroeville
• The Monroeville area seems kind of low in terms of charging stations. However if you need to head this is a good place to charge (2 stations available). Other options include UPMC East and car dealers (you should normally ask for their permission to charge).

North Area (Wexford, Warrendale, etc)

1. Whole Foods Market Wexford

• Pros:
• 2 Level 2 (GE) stations available
• FREE!
• Cons:
• The stations are not marked as reserved for EVs, instead they are reachable within the 4 adjacent parking spots to the charger. However on a busy day (e.g. Saturday morning) you may find all 8 parking spots next to the 2 stations taken because they are pretty close to the entrance. From my experience if I'm really in need of a charge I just need to drive around 5-10 minutes for one of the spots to free up.

2. Giant Eagle Market District Wexford

• Pros:
• 2 Level 2 (Eaton) stations available.
• FREE
• Cons:
• The Eaton stations are not compatible with Nissan Leaf 2013 and newer. This is because Giant Eagle has neglected to upgrade the firmware version on the station, they have had a sign indicating they are working on getting the system updated since 2014. You can still charge but you will need to push the reset button on the stations multiple times (can vary between 3-10 times) until it eventually will start charging.
• Located by the Pharmacy side, i.e. not VIP parking.

Others worth mentioning:

1. Cranberry TESLA SuperCharger
• They have 6 super chargers. These are obviously for TESLA cars only. If you own a TESLA these are the only SuperChargers in the area. They are conveniently located near the intersection of 76 and 79, so if you are traveling by Pittsburgh this is the place to stop. They are behind a Residence Inn, next to a Quaker Steak Lube. There is a Starbucks next door as well.
2. Eaton Warrendale
• They have one the few CHAdeMOs (DC quick chargers) in the area. This is outside the Eaton office in Warrendale, PA, but according to the PlugShare user comments, they are open to the public and free of charge. They also have 2 Level 2 (J17772) stations. I believe they are in the ChargePoint network so you will need a ChargePoint account to use it (also free).

West (Robinson Township, Airport area)

1. The Mall of Robinson

• Pros:
• 4 Level 2 (Eaton) chargers with dedicated parking spots! They have 4, so it's unlikely they will be all used. This is by the way, the only mall in the area with EV chargers (Ross Park Mall should follow their lead). 
• FREE
• VIP parking, located next to the Food Court entrance.
• Cons:
• None really, except that it's a very valid excuse for my wife to spend more time at the mall =)

2. Market District Settler's Ridge

• Pros:
• 2 Level 2 chargers.
• FREE
• Unlike to the Wexford location, based on a comment on Plugshare dated Oct 2014, it appears Giant Eagle has upgraded the firmware on these units: "At long last they have fixed one of the two stations here to work with the 6.6kw on board chargers on 2013 and newer Leafs.". Subsequent comments indicate both of them have been fixed.

• Cons:
• These chargers are close to the LA Fitness and Cinemark theatre, so it's likely these chargers may be used by non Giant Eagle customers (also based on Plugshare comments).

Other worth mentioning:

1. Sunoco Pittsburgh Airport
• This has a CHAdeMo (quick charger) in the area along with 2 Level 2 chargers. Starting in 2016 they now charge via the Greenlots app ($2/hr) for Level 2 and ($10/hr) for quick charger, which is not cheap at all. I will only consider charging here in case of emergency.
2. Pittsburgh Airport
• The chargers at the Airport are a joke. They are 110v outlets available only on the short term parking, so they are not practical at all unless you are staying several hours at the short term parking.

South (South Hills, Washington, PA)

1. Tanger Outlets at Washington, PA

• Pros:
• 4 Level 2 chargers
• FREE
• VIP Parking. This I would also consider as a con, since I was expecting ICE drivers to not respect these parking spots on heavy shopping days, but I can vouch from personal experience that these spots were not ICEd even on Black Friday (2015).
• Cons:
• None really, other than too convenient for shoppers =)

Others worth mentioning:

• The South Hills area is really not a very EV friendly area, not really sure why. Other than the AAA branch and Adam Solar resources, the only other public stations available are the ones in car dealerships, e.g. Cochran Nissan, Bowser Nissan, etc.

I will try to keep this list updated, feel free to share about other stations as they become available in your comments below!

My experience running the 2015 New York City Marathon

Getting in

Getting into the NYC Marathon is hard. You can qualify by time if you are a very fast runner; you can join through a charity if you commit to raise a minimum goal for them (e.g. the goal for Team For Kids is $2,620); you can join through an international travel partner if you live outside the US; or join via sweepstakes. In my case I joined via sweepstakes. This was my second time participating in the sweepstakes. The fee for joining the sweepstakes was $11. There used to be a option in which if you joined the sweepstakes multiple years in a row you were guaranteed entry on the third year, that is no longer an option. I was very fortunate since supposedly only 11% of the people joining the sweepstakes got in 2015. This is the most expensive race I've ran, the entry fee was $255 in 2015.

Expo

I booked a hotel near Times Square months ahead. I was able to get enough points through a credit card offer, otherwise I would've paid between $200-$400 per night. I arrived to NYC on Saturday. The expo (Javits Center) is within walking distance from Times Square. This was the last day of the expo and they close early that day (5pm). I got in around 4:30pm. The vendors' portion of the expo closed exactly at 5pm. I assume the bib distribution remains open for a bit longer, but do not know for sure, this is one of my biggest fears when running out of town: not getting to the expo on time to pick your bib.

Getting to the start line

Getting to the start line is a challenge. There are 2 transportation options offered: a direct bus taken from the NY Metropolitan Library or a ferry taken from the Whitehall Ferry Terminal. I chose the ferry option because I would have to depart an hour earlier if I picked the bus. However there is no strict enforcement on the times assigned so in most cases you can switch at the last minute (at least that is what a fellow runner shared, he was able to take the bus instead of the ferry with no questions asked).

My assigned time for the Ferry was at 8:15am (my start time was 10:40am). I thought I had plenty of time. I left my hotel around 7:30am. I took the yellow line near Times Square and arrived outside the terminal around 8am. There was already a line, I was outside terminal for over 20 minutes and another 15 inside the terminal. Once I hopped on the Ferry it was about a 30 minute ride. I strongly recommend walking outside to take a look at the Statue of Liberty. It was very windy, but it's a great photo opportunity, don't miss it!

Once we got off the ferry, we had to wait in line for another 15-20 to hop on a bus. I got on the bus around 9:25am. I thought I still have over an hour, plenty of time. The bus ride took about 30 minutes, so I got off around 10am. The line in security was very short, I was finally inside the village around 10:05am. I was dropped on the green side of the village and after asking for information I learned that I needed to be inside my corral by 10:15am or else I would need to wait for the subsequent start at 11am. I ran to my Orange corral and made it just in time!

Brooklyn-Queens

You start off on the Verrazano bridge, this is the bridge that takes you from New Staton intro Brooklyn. It's the iconic picture that you see in most pictures for the NYC Marathon. It was long and steep, but it was also very crowded, so you can't really go fast in the first mile. There were also several clothes, gloves, hats lying around specially on the sides in spite of the many cloth donation containers available throughout the start area.

After the bridge you get into Brooklyn. The first few miles were packed even though there are parallel running groups that do not converge fully until around mile 8. From mile 2 through mile 13 you are within Brooklyn. There were water stations pretty much every single mile. At the time I was running, garbage was not being picked up and there were also no trash cans within sight, so every station was like a minefield of paper cups and consequently it was hard not to slow down through the stations.

What makes this Marathon unique in the world is the amount of people cheering, it's non stop! Most big city Marathon have large crowd support, but I'm pretty sure NYC beats most. Except for the bridges where people were not allowed, cheering was non stop, very impressive!

Queens-Bronx

Shortly after passing the half marathon marker you will be in Queens. Mile 14 goes around Queens, then came mile 15 which for me personally was the toughest part of the course, and I wasn't expecting it. Mile 15 goes entirely through a bridge, Queensboro Bridge, even though it does not show in the elevation chart, for me it felt like we were just going uphill, maybe it was because we were in the lower floor of the bridge and the fact that it is a mile long bridge, it felt like we were in there forever. Also there is no cheering in the bridge. The scenery on the first half of the bridge is great, you can seen One World Trade Center and the United Nations building. It is a great photo spot.

Once you are off the bridge, you are in Manhattan. The next 3 miles (16-19) take you through Manhattan heading North towards the Bronx on 1st Avenue. This is also mostly uphill so there is no much break after the bridge. However the crowd was nonstop along these miles. It is also a pretty wide avenue so that gives you more room to breath and to speed if you have the energy.

Mile 19 takes you into the Bronx, but only briefly for about a mile (mile 20). Mile 21 takes you back to Manhattan. Right around 130th street I saw a group of people cheering loudly for one of the runners, they even ran about a block with the runner. I thought that was a very special cheering group from what appeared to be the runner's family and close friends. Then I noticed other runners taking pictures with the runner. Once I approached her, even though I was not entirely sure, I thought that must be Alicia Keys. I had read that she was running the Marathon. I later confirmed it was indeed her! She finished around 5:50.

Finish

Right after mile 22 you get into Central Park, but then you get into mile 23 which I knew from the elevation charts, it was going to be one of the toughest ones, and indeed it was. The last 2 miles were tough, but the crowd support literally carries you through the finish line. I finished at 4:51. This was my 6th Marathon and it was my second worst time. The only other worse time was my first Marathon (4:58). Even though I was not expecting to do this bad, I'll take it anytime, it was a priceless experience! I would love to be back if I get another chance in the future!