Sweden plans to introduce female crosswalk signs

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Gender-conscious Sweden plans to make room for women on its crosswalk signs.

The government has ordered the National Road Administration to design a female alternative to the walking-man signs found at the Scandinavian nation's pedestrian crossings, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The new sign will show a woman instead of a man crossing the street, giving more gender balance to Swedish road signs, enterprise ministry spokesman Kenneth Hultgren said.

The government was inspired by a campaign in the city of Mariestad, 300 kilometers (190 miles) southwest of Stockholm, to put up a walking woman sign created by a local artist, Hultgren said.

Unwilling to give Mariestad an exemption from the national standards on road signs, the government instead decided to introduce the new sign nationwide, he said.

The walking woman sign is expected to be introduced next year. It will be up to local authorities to decide whether to use the new symbol or the traditional walking man sign, which came into use in 1966, road administration spokeswoman Anna Karin Bergstrom said.