Drive-in ‘sex boxes’ debut in Switzerland in effort to clean up sex trade
The city of Zurich rolled out the million-Euro project with the aim of making legal prostitution safer for both workers and customers.
BY TRACY MILLER / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2013, 2:13 PM
Voulez-vous coucher? The city of Zurich is set to open a group of 'sex boxes' as a designated space for prostitutes and their customers.
Men seeking the comfort of a prostitute in Zurich will soon have a designated place to get it on with their paid paramours.
In an effort to make street prostitution safer for both sex workers and customers, authorities in the Swiss city have rolled out a series of drive-in "sex boxes," set to open for business Aug. 26.
Located along a clearly marked path, the drive-in structures are for car customers only.
The nine wooden sheds are located in a former industrial area of the city. They will be staffed with up to 40 prostitutes and open during designated nighttime and early morning hours, The Telegraph reported.
The drive-in booths outside the city center are set to open Aug. 26.
Adorned with posters promoting condom use and AIDS awareness, and equipped with alarms that can be activated in case of danger, the bare-bones garages hold space for a car and little else. They are for car customers only; men on foot or on motorbikes are not allowed.
The boxes are part of an effort to regulate street prostitution and improve the prostitutes' working conditions, authorities said.
While prostitution is legal in Switzerland, Zurich men will no longer be allowed to solicit sex workers outside the group of boxes or two other approved zones.
The 1.4 million-Euro initiative is part of an effort to bestow some order Switzerland's growing sex trade, with an eye toward protecting workers while also keeping them away from the city center and residential neighborhoods.
"We want to regulate prostitution because until now it was the law of the jungle," welfare department official Michael Herzig said, according to The Telegraph.
"It was the pimps who decided the prices, for instance. We are trying to reach a situation which is better for the prostitutes themselves, for their health and security and also for people who live in Zurich."
