China appears to be following the trend in other countries to offer women wider parking spaces. We saw this controversial practice emerge in countries like South Korea. Now, a shopping center in Hebei province will offer the same widened spaces for female drivers.
The women-only parking spots in Shijiazhuang are painted in pink and light purple and are one meter (3ft) wider than normal spaces.
Most women would find such extra wide spaces to be more than a little insulting but women in Asia appear to favor the practice.
For the full story, click here.
Are hoop skirts making a comeback?
I think the stereotype of “bad” female drivers is that women tend to drive more cautiously, especially compared to young males. Cautious driving annoys people, so they call the drivers bad. I should know, I drive a constant 5-8 miles over the limit max (because in AZ, where I come from, they give you speeding tickets over that speed), always come to a complete stop at stopsigns, and take time to look both ways before turning. I have had people (3/4 times, a male in a super-sized white truck) tailgate me, honk at me, zoom in front and slam on their breaks, turn in front of me, etc.
Sabine Schmitz does not need a larger parking space:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KiC03_wVjc
(Sorry, not sure how to embed this. Basically, she rocks a Ford delivery van on the Nurburgring in Germany – an insanely long, complicated and difficult race course. Personally, I take particular glee when she massively blows past some “dudes” on their sport motorcycles. ;^) )
About parking lots that are too large: often times, when one goes to design/build a typical suburban office or commercial building, the bank lending you the money for the construction will look in a table and say “oh, for x square feet of office building, you must have y parking spaces, less than that and we won’t give you the loan” and/or the local zoning/planning authority will do something similar. Generally, these ratios and tables have not been put to any sort of real-world test. Someone came up with them years or decades ago, and they’ve stuck. Generally, they push for wayyy more spaces than are needed. There are several harmful results: impermeable parking surfacing causes problems with drainage and flooding, oversized lots have to be plowed (in snowy areas) and generally patched/painted/maintained wasting the building owner’s money, and they push the buildings farther apart, reducing density and making public transit more difficult or impossible for these sprawling office/commercial areas.
I would like to compliment the fine Zoning and Planning folks in Wheeling, IL – on one project they actually insisted that we take out a few parking spots and insisted that we provide some bike parking – less asphalt, more grass! Smart cookies!
I would like larger spaces in general for safety, ease of entering vehicle with children, groceries, pets, books, etc. I noticed some interesting comments yesterday on women’s driving skills. Interesting, because they were factually inaccurate but common stereotypes in our society. This story will link to a very large study about driving by Carneige Mellon.
“WASHINGTON – That age-old stereotype about dangerous women drivers is shattered in a big new traffic analysis: Male drivers have a 77 percent higher risk of dying in a car accident than women, based on miles driven.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16698153/
AY has a point.
In this country one of the things that really piss me off about commercial real estate design is the parking lot. The idiots who design most of them think it going to a car storage lot where the maximum slot spaces defined in the space is the goal and the assumption is everyone drives a Yugo instead of a Yukon.
1) Most parking lots are NEVER at full capacity. EVER. And when they are? Park and walk. Make the fat lazy Americans walk a bit. It won’t kill them.
2) If you park and can’t open your doors without dinging or park without being dinged? THE PARKING LOT SLOTS ARE TOO SMALL. End of story.
And the penalty?
FREE BODY SHOP SERVICE with your parking. That should be the penalty for the designers.
Come to Texas, even the men folks need em.