Men's parking lot (Triberg)

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The men's car park in the upper (“green”) level of the multi-storey car park in Triberg

The men's parking spaces in Triberg are two specially marked parking spaces in the small town of Triberg in the Black Forest in the south-west of Baden-Württemberg. They were created in 2012. These are parking spaces that are considered difficult to use in a newly built municipal parking garage in the city center of Triberg, each of which has been marked as a parking lot for men . In Germany and worldwide, they are the first example of specially marked and designated parking spaces or parking spaces for use by men.

The campaign, which was originally due to structural and insurance-related reasons for the construction and creation of the multi-storey car park in the steep Triberg valley basin, attracted public attention and sparked sustained media interest worldwide . The idea goes back to the mayor of Triberg, Gallus Strobel.

history

The Triberg basin is structurally not easy to develop. The Triberg waterfalls attract a large number of day tourists, but only a few overnight guests, to the town, which is looking for attractions to make the city center more attractive. A few years after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , significantly fewer American tourists had come. The number of day tourists in the year fell to 250,000 by 2010, in good times it was twice as many. Immediately before the financial crisis in 2007, there was talk of a planned amusement park, the 90 million project Triberg Adventure World , on the locally largest industrial wasteland (formerly Bühler Motor ); the parking garage with today's “men's parking spaces” is the only construction project that was actually built.

Description and location

Due to the construction and for topographical reasons, the rear longitudinal facade of the multi-storey car park facing the Gutach is slightly bent at one point. Due to the extremely steep terrain, the building, which has to be overcome 20 meters in altitude, does not need internal parking ramps and is only accessed via the driveways at the intersections of Kreuzstrasse and the respective parking garage level.

The course follows the embankment of the Gutach river on the northern rear facade. The parking niches there on the first and second floors can only be reached lengthways and backwards. These two parking spaces, colloquially parking spaces , were viewed as critical and possibly prone to accidents. The architect and operator were concerned that these parking spaces could lead to accidents and vehicle damage due to the difficult parking. Mayor Strobel ( CDU ) therefore suggested that they be shown separately for men only . According to the architects Judith Haas and Mattias Huismanns, they are no narrower than the other parking spaces. In July 2012, the two parking spaces were each marked as a “men's parking space” by drawing a Martian symbol (known as a male pictogram ) on the garage floor in the middle of the parking spaces delimited by edge markings . The garage floor is green on the upper level and orange on the middle level.

There are also twelve parking spaces for women in the multi-storey car park , which are easier to reach and drive into. The men's parking spaces are open to all genders. At the inauguration of the 2 million euro building in June 2012, Siegfried Kauder was present alongside a large number of local dignitaries . Gallus Strobel sees the facility as a PR gag (cf. viral marketing ) to make tourists aware of Triberg on the Internet . The cost-benefit ratio is unbeatable. "Our city spends at least 50,000 euros a year on marketing, and the parking campaign cost us perhaps 50 euros." ( Gallus Strobel : Focus 2012)

  • Topography of the Triberg basin

  • Sign for the men's parking lot

  • Excerpt from the planning documents UG

  • Excerpt from the planning documents upper floor, men's parking lot circled

Public reactions

The lower men's parking lot

The establishment of these men's parking spaces generated an international response in August 2012.

In the United States, the issue was taken up several times. The American television magazine ABC News filmed Strobel while parking. ABC suggests, like some other international reports, that all parking spaces or parking spaces in the multi-storey car park are marked according to their accessibility according to men and women. The US broadcaster NBC took up the topic as well.

Strobel answered questions from the media from France, Italy, South Africa and the British BBC about the men's parking spaces. The Huffington Post reported and the Associated Press international news agency picked up the subject and interviewed the mayor.

The British Daily Mail compared the Triberg challenge with a Chinese parking garage, in which women's parking spaces were designed to be easy to park and equipped with impact stoppers for women who - according to the Guardian and Daily Mail  - were supposedly poorly parking women. The conservative Telegraph also reported, as did a Moroccan women's magazine and a journalist from the Norwegian Aftenposten .

The Times of India presents the Triberger under the title Women, a threat to parking? In a row with sexist car parks in Asia, according to which women’s car parks in the Chinese province of Hebei have already been designated especially for women in pink and purple with dancing guides and zodiac symbols instead of numbers. In South Korea , parking spaces have been designated that are easier to reach with high-heeled shoes.

In a television report by SWR television it was emphasized that women can also park there without any problems and that it is just a marketing gag to make Triberg known. According to Südkurier , women interviewed online said they were more amused, while "at Südkurier online it is more the men who are outraged about it ...". DerWeste commented on it as a “PR action in the summer slump , not an act of discrimination”.

The Green Youth Ortenau expressed criticism of the public relations work in an open letter. It is not the safety aspect that is communicated, but rather the parking spaces are interpreted as a “show stage of male parking art”. This reinforces the stereotype that women have trouble parking. The equal opportunities officer of the neighboring district of Waldshut , Anette Klaas (independent, spokeswoman for the state working group of municipal women's and equal opportunities officers in Baden-Württemberg) called the idea extremely embarrassing ; it is a stupid and brazen provocation and also unpleasant for many men.

The mayor described this as “humorless reactions” from the “ politically correct ”. The establishment of the men's parking spaces is the humorous "use of a cliché " for marketing purposes .

At the end of 2012, the South African Mail & Guardian Online put under the title Nine Sexist Statements, the 2012 mayor Strobel in a row with criticized celebrities such as Jacob Zuma , Mitt Romney , Cecil Chao Sze-tsung and others. The debate about parking spaces for men was listed in the ZDF annual review under the motto “Hello Germany Emotions 2012”, which the Südkurier reported again.

In 2013, Mayor Strobel took part in the quiz show Tell the truth about the topic. The Triberg author Dieter Stein published a booklet in July 2012 with the title men's parking spaces and humorously caricatured the creation.

In 2012, the municipality estimated that, according to media coverage, around 400,000 tourists visited Triberg. The men's parking spaces are shown during the city tours. Merchandise items are on sale. The local carnival society also took on the topic in 2013. In 2014 the men's parking spaces were featured in crime stories by the St. Georgen author Ernst Obermaier under the title Who is Murdering in the Black Forest? mentioned.

In 2015 the wall next to one of the parking lots was given the slogan "Steep mountains, moist valleys ..." and the silhouette of a lying naked woman on behalf of the municipal administration and was removed a few days later due to negative media coverage of the sexist approach.

Difference to the women's parking lot

The word men's parking lot is also used satirically as an antonym to the term women's parking lot .

According to the urban planner and women's researcher Ruth Becker , the perception of gender-specific risks and the actual risk are different for men and women. Becker refers to Elisabeth Wilson's book The Sphinx in the City , published in 1992 , according to which an anonymous urban environment even helps women. The popular demand to make public space safer and more accessible for women tends to have the opposite effect and perpetuate the cliché of persecuted innocence . More important are the development of a psychological disposition and urban competence in both sexes, as well as tackling actual violent relationships.

Focus online titled an article Is This Sexist? Only real guys rank here . In 2011, the book author and satirist Florian Willet proposed the designation of the darkest possible parking spaces for men under the term men's parking lot (presumably ironic or satirical).

In contrast to disabled parking spaces, women's and men's parking spaces are not provided for in German road traffic regulations. The landlord of the parking lot can only enforce compliance if the StVO does not apply in the parking lot. In Triberg it is expressly not intended to deny access to women.

At the Utah-based television station KSL, which belongs to the Mormon Bonneville International media group, the legal consequences of the designation of gender-specific parking spaces in the USA were discussed using the Triberg example. Strobel's remarks to challenge political correctness and the statement that men tend to park a little better, if he were the mayor or general manager of the United States, might bring him a lawsuit. In the USA, complaints against organizations in connection with discrimination in company parking lots are more frequent, but mostly on the access of disabled and war invalids and less on allegations of gender discrimination.

Similar marketing campaigns

In neighboring St. Georgen , the term was used in the sense of a men's garden , where women can temporarily give up their partners who are annoying when shopping. The neighboring Bad Dürrheim has created a special Facebook car park in front of the thermal bath that only fans should use.

Web links

Commons : Men's parking  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Spiegel Online : Only men here! Interview with the mayor of the city of Triberg, accessed on July 15, 2012.
  2. ↑ a b c Auto Bild : Designation of a men's parking lot in Triberg , accessed on July 15, 2012.
  3. ^ Südkurier : The parking garage idea makes Triberg famous. , 7 July 2012, media coverage of the establishment of a men's space, accessed on 15 July 2012.
  4. ↑ a b The Triberg Adventure World project is about to go out of the Badische Zeitung March 8, 2010
  5. ^ Triberg parking garage instead of adventure world June 9, 2012, Südkurier
  6. ^ "Men's parking spaces" in Triberg: Particularly difficult to park , Pforzheimer Zeitung , July 6, 2012
  7. ↑ a b ABC News : Sexist Parking Plan? German Mayor Creates Male-Only Spots. ABC media report on the first men's parking space, accessed August 6, 2012.
  8. ↑ That is why there are parking spaces only for men in Triberg , Welt Online from 6 July 2012
  9. ↑ Women cannot park !? ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Regio TV Bodensee , July 10, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.regio-tv.de
  10. ↑ a b c Focus Online : Germany's first parking spaces for men: Is that sexist? Only real guys rank here , accessed on July 15, 2012.
  11. ↑ a b The Guardian : German mayor defends 'men only' parking spaces. guardian.co.uk, July 12, 2012, accessed August 17, 2012.
  12. ↑ Are women worse drivers? Perhaps in Germany and China USA
  13. ^ German mayor designates parking spaces just for men USA
  14. ^ En Allemagne, des places de parking interdites aux femmes ACTUALITE International Le Figaro 11/07/2012
  15. ↑ German town's 'male only' parkings South Africa
  16. ↑ Black Forest Messenger : Worldwide sensation. Worldwide media coverage on the designation of a men's parking lot, accessed on August 6, 2012.
  17. ↑ 'Men Only' Parking Comes To German Town Men Only Parking Huffpost 07/12/12 12:43 PM ET
  18. ↑ German mayor defends 'men only' parking spots The Associated Press July 12, 2012 5:11 PM ET
  19. ↑ a b Warning! German mayor risks sexism row by designating tricky parking slots as 'men only' by Allan Hall In Berlin, Dailymail, July 10, 2012.
  20. ↑ 'Easy' parking spots for women introduced by German mayor Great Britain
  21. ↑ Vamp Magazine 06 2012 Are women worse driver than men?
  22. ↑ Tysk by reserverer parkeringsplasser kun for menn Byen Triberg has reserved to plasser i et parkeringsplass for manlige sjåfører. Årsak: Det er så vanskelig å parkere der. arild færaas, 6 July 2012, Aftenposten
  23. ↑ Women, a parking menace? Kritika Kapoor, TNN August 6, 2012.
  24. ↑ State show
  25. ↑ Südkurier : Women see only man's parking lot with humor , July 7, 2012
  26. ^ Controversy about parking spaces for men in Triberg , WAZ from August 21, 2013
  27. ↑ Open letter from the Green Youth in Ortenau (PDF; 78 kB)
  28. ↑ a b c d Gender struggle in the Triberger car park men's parking lots cause a sensation / A nice gag for some, sexism for others August 23, 2012, bathe online
  29. ^ Südkurier : Strobel answers green youth
  30. ↑ Schwarzwälder Bote : Green stings do not itch black gallus
  31. ↑ Nine sexist statements that rocked 2012 04 Dec 2012 13:53 - Verashni Pillay Mail & Guardian Online
  32. ↑ Triberg - Gallus Strobel's effective advertising idea “men's parking lot” is blossoming TV. Südkurier, December 26, 2012
  33. ↑ Schwarzwälder Bote : Triberg men's parking lot topic in SWR , March 6, 2013
  34. ^ Black Forest Bote : Triberg: Humorous Hotel Stories
  35. ↑ Men's parking spaces - A short story with pictures by Dieter Stein
  36. ↑ Focus Online : New Zoff about parking spaces for men. 17th August 2012.
  37. ↑ Gender struggle in the parking garage. Baden Online, 23 August 2012.
  38. ↑ Who murders in the Black Forest? 12 crime novels and 120 leisure tips. Ernst Obermaier, Gmeiner-Verlag, 2014.
  39. ↑ Sexism Posse in the Black Forest: Park & ​​Weib Spiegel Online, August 14, 2015.
  40. ↑ After the Triberg act scandal: The wall at the men's parking lot is white again Südkurier, August 20, 2015, accessed on August 22, 2015.
  41. ↑ Ruth Becker Journal for Women's Research and Gender Studies, Vol. 18, H. 4, 2000, pp. 49-65 (5 tabs) ISSN  0946-5596 Location: USB Cologne (38) -FHM XG6137
  42. ^ The Sphinx in the City: Urban Life, the Control of Disorder, and Women; Elizabeth Wilson; University of California Press, 1992
  43. ↑ Herbert Glasauer Violence is not always and everywhere, Georg Glasze, Robert Pütz, Manfred Rolfes: Discourse, City, Crime: Urban (in) certainties from the perspective of urban research and critical criminal geography. transcript Verlag, 2005. S. 206 ff.
  44. ↑ Florian Willet: Germany's women abolish their men: Florian Willet explains female chauvinism , www.verlag-ludwig.de, 2011, p. 09 online
  45. ↑ a b c Gender-specific parking stalls: A lawsuit waiting to happen? Rachel Lewis, ksl.com Contributor September 12, 2012 KSL
  46. ↑ Schwarzwälder Bote : Fashion flea market with men's parking lot , April 19, 2013
  47. ↑ Focused: On the edge: »Men’s parking lot« , in: Focus No. 29/2012

Coordinates: 48 ° 7 '48.29 "  N , 8 ° 13' 51.47"  E