This is an interesting example, from Germany in January 2012.
A German man has created a new website to arrange shared car trips with a twist – it’s targeted toward Muslims, and drivers can only offer transport to members of the same sex.
Called Muslimtaxi.de, the site is based on the same principle as other popular websites like mitfahrgelegenheit.de , which lets cost-conscious Germans arrange shared car rides.
Those interested in offering rides specify their gender, asking price and how many passengers they can accommodate. Potential passengers contact the driver directly.
…
In operation since late last year, the website has attracted its share of criticism. People have accused Reid of trying to create a parallel society and supporting immigrants who don’t want to integrate in German culture.
But Reid says the response from thousands of grateful riders has showed him he’s filling a niche.
“Many Muslim brothers and sisters complained that they can’t use conventional offers because the gender segregation stipulated by Islam is not implemented,” he added.
I do like to see the niches created by stupid bigotry filled by enterprising go-getters like that.
The point that I don’t get is how this new site actually finds its customers, seeing how a pretty large proportion of the rides on the normal car-share sites already specify “women only please” and no one bats an eyelash; it’s just like “non-smokers only”. Not surprising, seeing how the offers on these sites come from people offering seats in their own cars on trips they’d take anyway: It’s kind of normal to select people you’re comfortable with, and women have internalised the message “don’t get into a car with male strangers” well enough to not be comfortable taking a male passenger.
There are women only taxi firms in the UK so segregated travel isn’t exclusive to Muslims: check out Pink Ladies, London Ladies Chauffers, etc.
And to be honest, if I was a woman, I wouldn’t share a bus with gangs of men. Seperating the sexes where there is an genuine fear of danger doesn’t sound entirely unreasonable.
Specifically meant ‘If I was a woman in India’ but I might have some fear elsewhere.
I should add these companies are a response to women’s fears and not to male fears that women might get all feminist and uppity if they’re treated equally.
For that matter, I seem to recall a few years back (I don’t know the current situation) here in this German city, after a certain time of day, there was a rule that the bus driver could call a taxi for woman passengers for the distance between their last bus stop and their home. I believe the bus ticket was assumed to pay for that, or possibly there was a fairly small surcharge.
I do know that these days any passenger can have the bus driver call a taxi (with standard taxi costs), I do not know if there is still a special rule for women. On the other hand, the special night buses no longer cost extra (for everyone) … tariffs change all the time.
There’s more cooperation between taxis and buses, for that matter – some lines (and some other lines at low-traffic times) are actually served by taxis instead of buses; apparently, that’s significantly cheaper. Typically, one has to phone in advance to get a car to show up at the time in the schedule.
I do remember that a while back, there was a significant recruiting push here for woman bus drivers.
Shatterface (#2 #3) –
It’s not just India, it’s an ever growing number of countries where separate train, bus and subway cars have become necessary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women-only_passenger_car
We don’t have this problem in Mississippi because here women can carry guns in their purses. (snark)