An Answer for Taxi Passengers Tired of Leering Drivers

Opening up to Mexican women what has been an overwhelmingly male profession, a new fleet of 35 pink taxi cabs in Mexico's city of Puebla are driven exclusively by women and don't stop for men, according to the Associated Press.

Privately financed Pink Taxi de Puebla invested 5.8 million pesos (about $440,000) to start the service, which caters especially to female customers tired of leering male drivers. The Puebla state government provided licensing and training. If the program succeeds, officials plan to expand it to other cities.

Each compact, four-door pink taxi comes with a beauty kit, a GPS system and an alarm button that notifies emergency services.

Women's rights activists are against concept, however, saying the service does not address the root of the harassment problem.

A proposal to create a pink taxi service in Mexico City failed to get off the ground in 2007, but the crime ridden metropolis offers women-only buses and subway cars at rush hour.

And the concept is catching on elsewhere. Women-only taxis have been sprouting up in cities from Moscow to Dubai.