“L.A. wasn’t built around the car. It was built around the parking lot.” (Los Angeles Magazine, 2011).

Los Angeles has the highest density of parking spaces in the world. Its downtown contains more spaces per acre than any other city and they’ve been growing at a rate of about 1,000 a year for over a century, (Los Angeles Magazine, 2011). Yet despite increasing development, finding a parking spot remains stressful - especially during high traffic times of day.

For the past 100 years, the solution to this problem was simple: build enough parking to handle peak demand. However, little attention, if any, has been paid to the off-hours, evenings, weekends, and holidays. Today, L.A. has a mountain-size surplus of parking that it, quite often, doesn’t know how to utilize.

So what’s to be done? How can Los Angeles outdoor surface parking lots be repurposed to increase their variety of uses, or aesthetic value, while enabling parking in the city?

Ford needs your help to find the answers. We’re asking developers from around the world to show us how they would reimagine and repurpose surface parking lots in Los Angeles using software and apps.  

$27,500 in prizes

1. Learn about the problem and some resources for solutions.
2. Read the Official Rules to confirm you meet all eligibility requirements.
3. “Register” to access the submission form and start your draft.
4. Create a working solution that meets the requirements above, a demonstration video, and take some screenshots of your solution.
5. Provide a way for us to access your solution.
6. Submit before the deadline!

• Quality of the Idea
  Includes creativity and originality of the idea.
• Implementation of the Idea
  Includes how well the idea was executed by the developer.
• Transformation of the Modern Parking Lot
  Includes the extent to which the solution increases the variety of uses, or aesthetic value, of Los Angeles parking lots, while enabling parking in the city.