Argentina: Bus Drivers Sought, No Men Need Apply

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 Agence France Presse.