Looking for a parking spot in a busy city absolutely sucks. From having to pay attention to the multiple signs and laws posted, fighting other frantic drivers, and ponying up the bucks to park for a couple of hours, now it turns out you can devote a serious chunk of your life to finding these highly desirable pieces of real estate. In fact, drivers in New York City can spend upwards of 107 hours a year looking for street parking. Folks in the West Coast—well, you’re not much better off.
These and other statistics were released by Ford in order to better position its new, popular mini-crossover: the EcoSport. A 2017 report from INRIX highlights how much time drivers actually spend looking for a parking spot, and with more and more buildings and stores being built in large cities and up-and-coming ones, less parking space is available for far more consumers to share.
According to the study, drivers in New York City spend a stupefying 107 hours every year looking for parking space. Folks in Los Angeles and San Fransisco, California reportedly spend 85 and 83 hours, respectively, looking for parking spaces. In less populated cities drivers spend less time, drastically bringing down the average to 17 hours of parking space hunting annually across the board. We don’t know about you, but that’s still a heck of a lot.
According to Ford, EcoSport drivers will be able to squeeze into tight spots and use space more efficiently. However, we’re not sure how this relates to the report on hand, as it doesn’t measure the size of the parking space, but the availability or lack thereof as it relates to time spent looking for an opening. Sure, the nation’s smallest crossover measures only 161.3 inches in length, which will certainly come in handy in many scenarios, but it still won’t create a parking space when there simply isn’t one.
In case you’re wondering, the EcoSport is 8.5-inches shorter than the Mini Clubman, but it boasts more cargo room.