German Town Designates ‘Easy’ Parking Spots for Women

Women are free to try to park in the tighter spots, insists Triberg's mayor. It's just better left to the menfolk

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Isn’t it cute when women try to park their cars without their menfolk? The German town of Triberg has generously attempted to help out the ladies by labeling the spaces in a new car park with female and male symbols. The “female” spots are wider with lots of light, whereas the “male” spots are next to concrete pillars and can only be backed in to, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The mayor of the town said it was a natural decision, given that (of course) women find parking trickier than men do. “In the new car park, we found that two places were not rectangular, at an angle to the road and placed between walls and pillars,” Triberg Mayor Gallus Strobel told German newsmagazine Der Spiegel.  “That makes parking difficult, so we decided to allocate them to men.” Instead of, say, to motorcycles or subcompact cars.

(MORE: Woman Are Better than Men at Parking, Study Finds)

He claims the move is not sexist because women are free to try parking in the trickier man spots, and that more spots — 10 — had been allocated for women than for men: 2. He also dismisses what he calls “humourless reactions from the politically correct.”

Unsurprisingly to everyone but Strobel, the move has caused a media firestorm. “I never expected this reaction,” said Strobel. “I’ve been on the phone all day, the TV will come. I am happy, and it looks like we’ve hit a raw nerve in society. It’s been a great marketing gimmick. Women can come here and prove me wrong, and while they’re at it, they can see the town’s attractions.”

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