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What are the opportunities and challenges of expanding EV charging infrastructure, addressing demand, accessible parking, and curb space management? Do inclusive mobility and parking management really intersect with growing electromobility in urban areas?
Interview with Gabriela Barrera and Olivier Asselin, elaborated by Pedro Gomes and Daniel Herrera Meek.
Parking is a complex urban issue requiring cooperation across departments like mobility, urban planning, and local economy. Local and regional governments aim to regulate parking, balancing urban space with growing demand due to increased traffic and vehicle ownership. This equation is even more complex now, with the transition to zero-emission mobility. As the demand for electric vehicles grows—and we move from ‘early adopters’ with a driveway and a possibility to charge at home or work, to ‘mass adoption’ with users dependent on public charging infrastructure—so does the complexity. So, what are the main challenges we are facing, and how to better address them?
POLIS: How important is accessible parking and charging, given the scarcity of urban space?
Olivier Asselin: To me, they can be dealt with separately. Creating accessible parking spaces already involves a difficult balance between meeting width standards (3.10 metres in France) and maintaining sidewalk space (1.50 metres), particularly in dense urban and historic areas. Although some exemptions exist, they do not apply to electric vehicle charging points.
With public space already limited, adding electric cars as a new ‘occupant’ requires rethinking this shared resource—something that has been further complicated by the arrival of free-floating scooters and bicycles, lockers, drop-off points for bio-waste and glass, and more. While EV adoption is growing, their share in total vehicle fleet remains small, often leaving charging spaces empty. This raises a political debate around converting general parking spaces into EV-dedicated ones. Combining accessible parking and charging only heightens the spatial demand, intensifying the debate over public space distribution.
Gabriela Barrera: I see this differently. Accessible parking and charging need to be considered both as part of public authorities’ strategies and sustainable urban mobility plans. This approach helps avoid misalignment with the needs of disabled people, setting unrealistic targets, or building infrastructure that may continue to be a barrier for a considerable segment of the population.
While accessible parking is something we are more familiar with, charging infrastructure is relatively new, and public authorities are still fine-tuning their deployment strategies. A key issue is that EV charging spots are reserved exclusively for electric vehicles and cannot simultaneously serve as accessible parking spaces and vice versa. This creates extra pressure on the already scarce urban space available and could potentially result in competition between the requirements of accessible parking, EV charging, and the needs of other transport modes of transport, like cycling or logistics.
POLIS: In your work, is accessibility typically considered?
Accessible van with wheelchair lift ramp,
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Barrera: In recent European electromobility calls and projects I have been working on, addressing the needs of vulnerable road users, including those with disabilities, has become a specific focus. This is a positive shift, and I hope to see concrete results that contribute to an inclusive, just transition—not just a ‘check-the-box’ approach with limited consultations or isolated use cases.
However, challenges have emerged both in reaching representative disability groups and addressing their complex or ambitious needs. Moreover, we sometimes forget that for many disabled people and their carers or drivers, electric mobility is still something quite abstract, especially because adapted electric vehicles are not yet widely available and remain mostly small-scale.
Finally, we also tend to assume what is most beneficial for these users, like prioritising accessible parking and charging at supermarkets, where space is less limited.
Asselin: Before its new operator took over, Lille Metropole had already installed 96 charging points, 70% of which met accessibility standards for disabled users—a rate that significantly exceeds current regulations. Lille Metropole has therefore set an excellent standard for accessible EV charging, and maintaining this excellence will be a priority as we expand to an additional 800 charging points.
POLIS: Is the current regulatory framework sufficient?
Asselin: In France, the regulatory debate has focused on balancing universal accessibility to new services, as required by the 2005 accessibility law, with national ambitions for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Overly ambitious accessibility standards could potentially slow down the roll-out of charging infrastructure. As a result, there was a nearly four-year delay between the initial accessibility requirements for charging spaces, as set by the Mobility Orientation Act of 24 December 2019, and the implementation order published on 27 October 2023.
The goal was to ensure good coverage of charging points while setting accessible spaces without hindering deployment, as accessibility exemptions allowed for standard spaces but not for EV charging. The decree of 27 October 2023 introduced a progressive model: the more charging points installed in an area, the lower the percentage required to meet accessibility standards. This addressed the challenge of strict accessibility by compensating with increased coverage and wider distribution of charging points.
The decree also introduced technical elements, such as the requirement for a minimum number of longer spaces, a timetable for adaptation, with rates increasing from 1 January 2026, and monitoring by the bodies responsible for consultation with inter-municipal accessibility commissions.
Barrera: To provide a local perspective, I contacted Norman Doege from Berlin, who first raised this issue with me when I was still employed by POLIS in 2021. Since then, the German Federal Government has been working on a standard for accessible charging infrastructure that will soon be published. Berlin was among many stakeholders contributing to this standard, which defines detailed requirements for both barrier-free and barrier-reduced charging infrastructure, as well as for the installation of ‘normal’ charging points, including the positioning of charging poles on streets.
This new standard will now guide tender requirements for charge point operators (CPOs), but Berlin is taking additional steps by providing detailed guidance to CPOs for compliance, including pre-checks to ensure standards are met in implementation plans.
POLIS: From your personal experience, what is missing and what works well?
EV charging station, Canva
Barrera: We still have limited data, input, and feedback from disabled people, their carers, and families, which can lead to overly generalised needs and reliance on large investments to address accessible parking and charging issues. But I also believe that years of policies, projects, and measures have provided us with valuable tools that we can apply if we view accessible parking and charging as part of the mobility system: we have experience developing Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs), understand that each city’s context and layout require tailored solutions, and have advanced in creating user-centred charging infrastructure.
Asselin: A key factor in achieving equitable access is the scale of implementation. In France, accessibility percentages are tied to the authority responsible for electromobility—this can cover relatively large areas, so equitable spatial distribution of accessible charging points is not guaranteed. This framework relies on local authorities’ discretion, making it essential for municipalities to act responsibly. For example, Lille Metropole prioritises installing charging stations in perpendicular parking spaces (back-in parking spaces or designated parking areas), which more easily accommodate wider accessible spaces.
Furthermore, Lille Metropole has already installed charging points that far exceed minimum legal requirements, suggesting that national standards could be adapted to meet local needs more effectively.
POLIS: How do we make this work?
Asselin: Lille Metropole has entrusted a private operator to install and develop electric charging stations, but retains its role as the main point of contact for coordinating between technical and political stakeholders (local authorities, concessionaires, national heritage preservation architects, electricity network managers, etc). This ‘conductor’ role helps to guide and harmonise the deployment of electric charging points. Lille Metropole will use the upcoming Schéma Directeur pour les Infrastructures de Recharge des Véhicules Électriques (SDIRVE) as a guiding document to ensure that charging points are both accessible and well distributed throughout the metropolitan area.
Barrera: Besides integrating accessible parking and charging into our mobility system, we need to see it as a full process—from planning to implementation, evaluation, and scaling (where enforcement is key). This process should inform policies, projects, and short-, medium-, and long-term measures. Furthermore, we need a research-based structured approach for policymakers and industry partners so that informed decisions can be made. In this sense, I see many opportunities to apply MOBI’s research methods, such as studying optimal charging locations, conducting consumer-monitoring studies to assess main challenges and trends, and assessing public acceptance of new measures.
Accessible parking and charging, both on- and off-street, need to be central to this approach.
We must also be aware that accessibility is more than moving from point A to B with the ability to recharge; it is about enabling a variety of trips that are reasonably quick and comfortable.
When I think about accessible parking and charging, I always make the analogy with attending a concert: I do not expect to have a full auditorium filled with accessible bays for disabled people. Instead, I expect accessible bays and seats interspersed with regular ones, in locations where my daughter and I can enjoy the event together and she can feel a part of the experience.
There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to parking and charging that works well in all urban contexts. The shared insights will hopefully support other POLIS members who are aiming to address the complexity of this topic and solve the puzzle.
This means, in very dense urban areas, properly reconciling the need for efficient and sustainable use of urban space, convenience to users with different vehicles and diverse needs, and reduced car use and more efficient traffic in cities). One might even say, finding the ‘Holy Grail’!
Click here to read the article in its original format.
About the contributors:
Interviewees:
Gabriela Barrera, Business Developer & Project Manager Electromobility, MOBI VUB. Barrera is a business developer and project manager at Vrije Universiteit Brussel's MOBI group, working on EU projects like eCharge4Drivers and Super Smart Charging Hubs. Previously with POLIS for 16 years, she led urban freight and electric mobility projects and contributed to EU transport policy, including as an external expert for the EU Sustainable Transport Forum.
Olivier Asselin, Parking Policy Senior Officer & Chair, Lille Metropole & Parking WG. Asselin is Senior Officer for parking policy at Lille Metropole (MEL). His role involves developing and promoting a comprehensive approach to parking as a strategic lever for policies in mobility, urban planning, and public space management. He also chairs the Parking Working Groups for both POLIS and AITF (French Association of Local Engineers) and regularly contributes to the development of French legislation on parking issues.
Interviewers:
Pedro Gomes, Clean Vehicles & Air Quality Cluster Lead, POLIS. Gomes leads POLIS’ Clean Vehicles & Air Quality Working Group and is responsible for several key legislative topics, including the Fit for 55 package (AFIR, EPDB, and CO2 standards for cars and vans, among others), the Clean Vehicles Directive, CO2 standards for trucks and buses, Euro 7 type-approval regulation, and the revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directive. He is involved in several EU-funded projects.
Daniel Herrera Meek, Project and Parking WG Manager, POLIS. Herrera Meek leads POLIS’ Parking Working Group and is involved in the EU-funded SUM, SMALL, ShareDiMobiHub, and MoLo Hubs projects, which address topics such as inclusive shared mobility, shared mobility hubs, new mobility services, and sustainable urban logistics.
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