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Women-only cabs
女士專用出租車
Fare Ladies
女駕駛員
A new car service offers lifts for women, from women
新的打的服務—女司機載女乘客
WOMEN have been driving yellow cabs in New York since the 1940s, but 99% of drivers are male. Even among drivers of cars booked by phone or online, only 4% are women. That may change with the launch of SheTaxis, an app that lets female passengers insist on female drivers, and vice versa.
自20世紀40年代紐約就已經出現了開黃色出租車的女司機，但是99%的都是男司機。就算是通過電話或網絡訂車，也僅有4%的女司機。不過這一情況可能因為粉色出租車這個應用軟件的出現而改變。該軟件能夠滿足女乘客訂女司機駕駛的出租車，同樣也適用于男乘客。
It will be available in New York City, Westchester and Long Island, and the firm plans to expand to other cities. Stella Mateo, the founder, is betting that quite a few women are nervous and weary of getting into cars driven by men. The service may also appeal to those whose religious beliefs forbid them to travel with unrelated men. Each driver wears a pink pashmina. Men who ask for a ride will be directed to another car service.
在紐約城、維斯切斯特以及長島人們就可以享受該服務，當地人稱之為“粉色座駕”，該公司計劃將該服務推廣至其他城市。該公司的創始人Stella Mateo打賭稱有些女乘客上了男司機開的出租車會很緊張很害怕。這項服務也會受到那些有宗教信仰人士的歡迎，因為她們的宗教信念禁止她們與不相關的男性同行。粉色座駕的司機都會穿戴一件粉紅色的羊絨衫，若有男士坐車將會指引坐另外的出租車。
Similar services thrive in India, South Africa and several Middle Eastern cities. Some Brazilian and Mexican cities offer women-only public-transport programmes known as “pink transport”. Japan has had women-only railway carriages on and off since 1912. Known as hana densha (flower trains), they offer a haven from the gropers who make rush hour in Tokyo so disagreeable. Women-only hotel floors are popular, too.
與此類似的服務在印度、南非和眾多中東城市發展迅速。巴西和墨西哥的一些城市專門為女性 提供被稱為“粉色運輸”的公共交通項目。日本自1912年開始就不斷地推出專為女性設置的客運列車。著名的花朵火車為那些在東京早晚高峰時段艱難摸索進站 的女性提供了避難所，乘地鐵不再那么令人難以忍受。賓館提供的女士專用樓層也大受歡迎。
But SheTaxis faces two speed bumps. One is practical. Demand has been so great that the firm has had to decelerate its launch until it can recruit 500 drivers. The other obstacle is legal. By employing only female drivers, SheTaxis is obviously discriminating against men. Since anti-discrimination law is not always applied with common sense, that may be illegal. And there is no shortage of potential litigants. Yellow cabbies are furious at the growth of online taxi firms such as Uber. “It's not hard to imagine a guy...filing suit,” says Sylvia Law of New York University Law School. SheTaxi's defence would probably be that its drivers are all independent contractors.”
但是粉色出租車面臨兩大障礙。一個困難來自實際運營。市場需求過大以至于公司不得不減緩其上市腳步直到招滿500名女司機。另一大困難來自法律層面。若僅雇傭女性司機，粉色出租車很明顯對男司機有性別歧視。因為反歧視法不會考慮常識，這會導致粉色出租車非法。這樣的話潛在訴訟當事人會牽涉到很多人。計程車司機對像尤伯這樣的網上出租車公司心懷憤懣。來自紐約大學法學院的西爾維婭·勞稱“不難想象男士會提起訴訟”。粉色出租車的辯護將很可能會稱它的司機都是獨立的承包商。
Because the firm caters only to women, it is discriminating against male customers, too. Is that legal? Angela Cornell of Cornell Law School thinks there could be a loophole. New York's Human Rights Commission could make an exemption on the ground that SheTaxi offers a service that is in the public interest: women feel safer not getting into cars with strange men. Women-only colleges are allowed, so why not women-only cabs? The snag is that some men may also feel safer getting into cabs with female drivers. A study in 2010 found that 80% of crashes in New York City that kill or seriously injure pedestrians involve male drivers. Women drivers are simply better.
由于該公司僅向女性提供服務，它就是歧視男乘客。這合法嗎？康奈爾法學院的安吉拉·康奈爾認為這里存在漏洞。紐約人權委員會可以以粉色出租車提供的服務符合公眾的利益而豁免其侵權。因為它是基于女乘客坐進女司機駕駛的出租車會感到更安全這一立場而提供服務的。女子大學被允許存在，那為什么粉色出租車就不行呢？障礙是有些男性也認為乘坐女司機開的出租車更有安全感。2010年的一項研究顯示，紐約城造成行人死亡或受重傷的交通事故中80%的肇事司機是男性。女性駕駛員相對來說要好得多。
