A town near Buenos Aires, leery of the screeching stops
and careening turns it says typifies male drivers, has hired
exclusively women to shuttle its passengers around.
"With women driving, the bus line is more family oriented, more
friendly," said Rafaela Nuyl, 34, one of 28 newly hired drivers for
the new bus service in Vicente Lopez.
The bus line in the town 270,000, which has been operating since
the beginning of the month, makes frequent stops at local primary
schools, elder day care centers and a maternity hospital, said
officials in Vicente Lopez.
They underscored the importance that drivers need to use
kid-glove care when chauffeuring sometimes frail or very young
passengers around the town.
"As a bus line that transports children and elderly people, we
wanted to have drivers who drive in a gentle manner," said Luis
Fusco, the town's top transportation official.
Officials in Vicente Lopez said there is no fare to ride the
bus, which was conceived as "a public service" for residents.
It is relatively rare in Argentina to see any female bus
drivers, let alone a town where women exclusively drive a city's
buses, but Nuyl said her customers don't appear to have any
objections.
"So far, I have not been on the receiving end of any macho
behavior," she told AFP.