BY: SAMANTHA TAPP
Photos via PinkZones
Women’s rights are currently a popular issue, especially just after millions marched through their respective cities as part of the protest, Women’s March on Washington, in support of equal rights. But we think one company may be taking women’s rights to the next level.
Sheilas’ Wheels, a “female-focused car insurer,” has just proposed to the UK the idea of PinkZones. Basically, PinkZones are separate driving lanes for female drivers. The lanes are supposed to increase safety and decrease the chance of women being harmed in a car accident.
This proposal comes after the company reviewed accident reports and statistics. According to Sheilas’ Wheels, they found that men are four times more likely to be convicted of a motoring accident than women in the UK, but that women were more likely to be injured in a traffic accident compared to men.
The PinkZone design concept proposes two different types of roads. The first would be a designated lane for only women on existing roads, and the second would be where there is a flyover created for women only on the busiest highways.
“As the UK’s leading car insurer for women, Sheilas’ Wheels is serious about creating a safer road network for female drivers and we believe a discussion about how best to achieve this is long overdue,” said Andy Sommer, spokesperson for Sheilas’ Wheels. “While PinkZones may be a futuristic concept, there does need to be acceptance in Government circles that women and men drive very differently and solutions identified for how we manage that.”
While the company doesn’t think their idea will be implemented anytime soon, they say the main goal of the design is just to enhance female drivers’ quality of life.
“While PinkZones may be something of a utopia for female drivers, there’s clearly a need to identify how to provide a safer driving environment on the road,”said Peter Rodger, Chief Examiner, at Institute of Advanced Motorists. “Driver safety is a paramount concern for us and we’re in favour of promoting further discussion about how to tackle the gender differences in driving to make it safer for all road users.”
A survey on behalf of the company was conducted and found that 68 per cent of people said they would support separate lanes for certain drivers, while only 11 per cent believed that men in the UK were safer on roads than women.
Obviously this proposal would need much more fine tuning if it were to ever be a reality. Especially now that gender lines are more fluid than ever, and women around the world are looking for equality, not separation.
