Sukhumi officials plan to introduce a new service – a taxi for women only. Now the “Lady Taxi” company is hiring female drivers. This type of special service is popular mostly in Muslim countries, where women can’t use taxies with male drivers on their own, or in highly-developed European countries, where successful women are ready to pay for exclusive services. For the most part, Abkhazian women are neither well-off, nor earnestly Muslim. The women-only taxi is being introduced in Abkhazia for another reason: women are considered to be more careful drivers than men, and reckless driving is a real traffic problem in the Black Sea region.
Russian tourists who have visited Abkhazia describe Abkhaz driving as ‘devilish’. Drivers do not observe any traffic regulations or speed limits, while all problems with traffic police (if there are any at all) are resolved by bribes. Moreover, the condition of the road surfaces is sometimes deplorable, and in the countryside domestic animals like horses and cows walk around traffic roads without any hesitation or fear. Abkhazia, a country with a population of 250,000, holds one of the top positions in the world ranking of countries with the highest number of traffic casualties, losing some 150 citizens in traffic accidents a year.
Most Abkhazian cars, even those of Russian origin, are far too old. However, the process of obtaining customs clearance for cars imported from abroad is much cheaper than in Russia. Therefore, some Russian car buyers prefer to take a risk and create fake enterprises or register their new cars as Abkhaz citizen’s property rather than pay the full tax in Russia. That’s why you can see a lot of cars with Abkhaz numbers in Sochi.
On the other hand, there are a lot of cars with Russian numbers in Abkhazia – Russian tourists like to travel to Abkhazia, despite the traffic problems. Abkhaz President Sergey Bagapsh recently issued a special warning to traffic police officers: they are not to stop cars with Russian numbers without any serious legal grounds, looking for easy money.
It is clear that women-only taxis can’t become a cure for all Abkhazia's traffic problems, but Abkhaz women drivers are known to be more polite and attentive drivers, who observe regulations and have greater potential for resolving conflict situations peacefully, so they can guarantee the safety of their passengers more efficiently.
Ekaterina Tesemnikova, exclusively to VK.
