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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Easy' parking spots for women introduced by German mayor
Spaces in a new car park in the Black Forest town of Triberg now come with male and female symbols. The spaces for women are wider and well lit, while those for men are close to concrete pillars and can only be reversed into.
Explaining the policy, Mayor Gallus Strobel said it was a natural decision because men are better at parking than women.
"In the new car park we found that two place were not rectangular, at an angle to the road and placed between walls and pillars; that makes parking difficult so we decided to allocate them to men," the 58 year-old mayor told Germany's Spiegel magazine.
But, he added, that there were great women drivers, and all women were welcome to try and park in the men-only spaces. Mr Strobel, who denies accusations of sexism, also pointed out that 10 spaces were reserved for women as opposed to just two for men.
So far the mayor says he has received mostly positive feedback despite expecting some "humourless reactions from the political correct" and being accused by one angry female critic of exhibiting "male pig-headedness. One man, the mayor reported, said he would travel to the town just to try the parking.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/9393451/Easy-parking-spots-for-women-introduced-by-German-mayor.html
AJTheMan
(288 posts)FarCenter
(19,429 posts)Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)Where are the spots for Asians????
(I'm guessing people can't take a joke and this will be reported)
BOG PERSON
(2,916 posts)A shopping centre in China's Hebei province has built a car park with wider spaces that it says is designed especially to suit women drivers.
The women-only car park in Shijiazhuang city is also painted in pink and light purple to appeal to female tastes.
Official Wang Zheng told AFP news agency the car park was meant to cater to women's "strong sense of colour and different sense of distance".
The parking bays are one metre (3ft) wider than normal spaces, he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8432887.stm
Archae
(46,347 posts)I'm kidding! I'm kidding!
Most women I know are better drivers (and better at parking) than the men I know.
Including myself!
This German mayor no doubt is a rotten driver himself.
Mira
(22,380 posts)I think that Mayor best stay away from me. I would show him a thing or two, and tell them as well.
In fluent driving, and German.
LOL
MADem
(135,425 posts)I didn't notice any difference in driving skills. OR parking skills, frankly. Or punctuality, or vehicle cleanliness, or ability to get to the appropriate location on time, or anything of that nature.
I think this mayor is both a victim and perpetrator of old stereotypes. His life will be made miserable as a consequence of his unabashed verbal diarrhea.
Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)Usually they are the more well-lit ones at the entry level of a parking garage, so single women would feel safer using them after dark. That doesn't seem like a bad idea to me.
I don't know if I have a point here, since it's not directly related; it's just that the concept of women-only parking spots isn't at all alien to Germans the way it would be here.