On October 24, 2009, I reported that Seoul, Korea was designating pink parking spaces specifically for women. China is going one step further – a Chinese shopping center recently announced the opening of an entire parking lot exclusively for women drivers.
The "Lady Parking" lot, located at the Wanxiang Tiancheng shopping center in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei Province, is scheduled to open in early 2010. To appeal to female patrons, the car park will be decorated with bright colors, such as pink and light purple, and cute cartoons.
Speaking of color, a report from the Global Times adds some off-color commentary, stating, "The lot offers wider parking spaces especially designed for female drivers, who tend to cause twice as many collisions in parking lots than in other places, according to insurance company data."
In a more subtle way, BBC quotes a Chinese official stating that the new lot will cater to women's "strong sense of color and different sense of distance."
These comments are referring to the fact that the parking spaces will be three feet wider than traditional parking spaces, because women are allegedly worse at parking than men, at least in China. The new car park also provides three lights in every parking space to improve visibility for female drivers. In case even more help is needed, specially-trained female parking guides will direct the drivers.
While I applaud the "lady's first" attitude, just as I did with regard to Seoul's women-friendly parking spaces, I will admit that I am uncomfortable with the conversation about women's parking skills -- a more difficult discussion in Western cultures. It seems to be politically incorrect, even if research claims to prove this point. But I have not figured out yet if the PC factor makes the Western position on this topic more or less advanced.
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