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Pink Lines

Following up on my earlier post about parking for expecting mothers (we know them well in these parts), I came across this Korean oddity: Special “women only” parking spaces.

The “pink lines”, painted pink, are 2.5 meters wide rather than the standard 2.3, offering aid to women drivers unskilled at parking.

I’ll reserve comment, as my jaw seems stuck to the floor.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 7:23 am and is filed under Parking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Pink Lines”

  1. Mrs. Davis Says:

    What I find interesting is that they used pink paint. Has pink been adopted as the international color for women or did the Koreans also light upon it for that purpose independently?

  2. Adam Says:

    Having lived a few years in Korea, I find the following comment on the original article the most plausible explanation:

    “I suspect that the parking spaces are actually a safety measure, so that women can more quickly get inside after parking at night. That would explain why the article also mentions new street lights being installed.

    The “unskilled women drivers” thing is probably an invention of the reporter. Frankly, journalism in South Korea lacks high standards of professionalism.”

  3. Hen Says:

    In germany “woman only” parking spaces are quite common in bigger parking lots and garages. Their only purpose is to increase security for woman by locating them close to the entrance or in a better guarded area. I’ve never heard that they’re bigger than all the other spaces.

    Some shopping centers have special parking spaces for people with children which are much wider (not only 20 cm) than regular spaces so that one can open the car’s doors wide to easier grap the little children out of their safety seats.

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How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

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