Tried one of those new pole chargers on my street today

We got ours over on Beacon Hill last fall and it changed how I think about charging. I've got a used Bolt in a rental with zero off street parking, and before this I was doing the same drive and sit routine at a DC fast station once a week, usally paying way more per mile than home charging costs. Now I just plug in most evenings while I'm making dinner and it tops up overnight on the residential rate. One thing I learned the hard way: the chargers near the busiest commercial strips get claimed fast. There are two poles within a block of me and the one by the coffee shop is basicly spoken for by early evening. The one on a quieter side street two blocks away is almost always free, so I just walk the extra bit. Check the app around dinnertime before you commit to a spot near your door, because the closest one is not always the best one. Also, my first session I forgot to end it in the app and left the cable locked in my car port for a day. The utility's support sorted it out quickly and there was no extra fee, but end the session properly when you unplug. Seattle drizzle does not seem to bother the units at all, they've held up fine through a whole winter of storms on my block.

I'm in West Seattle with a driveway, so these pole chargers were never going to be my main setup, but I've used a few when visiting family in Columbia City and my honest take is they're hit or miss. The one on my in-laws' street worked fine the first two times, then sat dead for close to three weeks before anyone fixed it. The app kept showing it as available the whole time, which meant I drove over with a low battery twice before I learned to call ahead or just check the map status that morning.

The pricing side has been fine for me, similar to what the other folks here describe, and way better than the highway fast chargers I used to rely on for trips. But if your whole plan depends on one unit near your house, build in a backup. In my case that meant knowing where the next closest one is, about a ten minute walk, and being okay with that once in a while. Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, my sister-in-law on that same street plugs in nightly and loves it. Just don't assume every pole unit is live and functioning the way the install map suggests. I'd give any new one near you a test run on a day you don't actualy need the range, so you find out the quirks before it matters.

Been using the one on my block in Greenwood since late summer, and the thing that actually made weeknight sessions workable was a cheap headlamp I keep clipped to the sun visor. The connector and the cable latch are both hard to see under the street trees after dark, and fumbling around in the drizzle got old fast. Headlamp on, plug in, done in under a minute even in the rain.

Question for anyone who's been at this longer than me: does the residential rate change on weekends or holidays, or is it flat every session? Haven't figured that out from the app yet.