Pink taxis in Honduras special for women
Driving taxis in Honduras has been a job for men, in a country with a high rate of machismo, but that has not been an obstacle for women to start counting in San Pedro Sula -locality in the north of the country-, with taxis with a woman at the wheel, in pink vehicles, exclusively for women and with security measures.
The service should have started this Thursday with the first taxi, but due to a last-minute inconvenience associated with the covid-19 pandemic, it will be postponed until next week, the president of the Honduran Taxi Driver Transportation Cooperative told Efe ( Cotaxihl), Henry Rodas, who promotes the project.
The first taxi driver is Julia Wilson, a nurse, single mother, with a six-year-old son.
For Julia, 30, it is not new to drive a taxi in San Pedro Sula, a city with a lot of economic, commercial, and industrial movement, which a few years ago was among the most violent in the world, since she has worked in that activity, from which he retired twelve years ago, due to insecurity.
The Cotaxihl initiative is supported by the IHT, which trained Julia on the psychological aspect, how to treat her future passengers, the use of appropriate clothing and other details about the responsibility of driving a taxi.
To guarantee a better service, the exclusive pink taxis for women will have a satellite location system, an external and an internal camera, a “panic button” and immediate contact with 911 in case of any emergency.
The president of Cotaxihl pointed out that the idea of the cooperative is that more women taxi drivers join and that they become entrepreneurs in the sector.
So far, three women have registered for the project, but it is expected that in December there will be between 15 and 20 pink taxis circulating in San Pedro Sula, although Rodas considers that the initiative should also be promoted in other cities such as La Ceiba, Tegucigalpa and Choluteca , in the Caribbean, central and southern Honduras.
The project of women driving taxis will be called “Sheula”, a term from the Lenca ethnic group that means “pink.”
Pink taxis in Honduras special for women
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