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Female only car park opens in China

Women often get a bad rap for being terrible at parking. Justified or not, a new car park in China hopes to make things easier for women with a female-friendly car park.

The women-only car park is located in a shopping centre in Tianjin.
The women-only car park is located in a shopping centre in Tianjin.

In typically cliched fashion the car park is painted in bright pink and adorned by female-friendly graphics such as peacocks, flowers and hearts. It’s signed by neon pink LEDs and has plenty of features aimed at making it easier for those born with ovaries and cursed by a lack of spatial awareness.

The car park, located underground in a shopping centre in Tianjin, has extra wide parking pays, more lighting, parking bumpers, hazard markers on hard surfaces and female parking attendants that emerge to provide guidance.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen women-only parking facilities. In 2009, a shopping centre in Bebei province, China built a car park with wider spaces and painted the whole lot pink to appeal to female tasts. So are the Chinese onto something?

Data from the Driving Standards Agency appears to reinforce the stereotype that women aren’t quite as good at manoeuvring their cars as men. In 2011, a total of 1,660,206 test errors were recorded by examiners. Men made 718,224 of these mistakes compared to women, who made 941,962. Men sat 770,000 tests while the fairer sex sat around 845,000 — the higher number being because female candidates tended to take more tests.

Interestingly, the DSA says that the biggest skill gap between the sexes is related to reverse parking and reversing round a corner. Figures showed errors in these areas amounted for 41,000 in womens test’s, compared to just 18,800 in men’s.

Whether the measures introduced by these car parks will make it easier for women to park remains to be seen, but they surely can’t hurt. Perhaps all car parks should provide bigger spaces, better lighting and more hazard markers regardless of gender.

Let us know what you think of the new car park or the difference between the sexes in the comments below or on Facebook.

Pictures: China Foto Press / Barcroft Media

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