‘Line men’ no more after young girl’s query

The New Zealand Transport Agency will start to replace its ‘‘line men’’ signs with ‘‘line crew’’ versions following a shrewd inquiry from a 7-year-old.

Zoe Carew, of Wellington, was intrigued after seeing one of the signs as to why only men could be line workers, and requested the agency change the title to something more ‘‘correct and fair’’.

The agency agreed, and advised Carew it would begin rewriting the signs as existing ones needed replacing.

In a letter to the agency, Carew said she noticed the sign next to some line workers while she was in a car with her father and brother, and wondered why only men could be line workers.

‘‘Why does the sign say ‘‘line men’’ when the people working on the lines may be men or women?’’ she asked the agency.

‘‘I think that this sign is wrong and unfair. Do you agree?

‘‘Can you please change the sign to say ‘line workers’ instead, or something else correct and fair like that?’’

In reply, NZTA chief executive Fergus Gammie wrote back to Carew to commend her for taking action on something she thought was unfair, and said the hazard signs would be changed.

Her suggestion of adopting the term ‘‘line workers’’ would require a design change because it was too long but the words ‘‘line crew’’ would fit nicely, he explained.

‘‘The transport agency can include this change in its sign specification approvals, which will be published soon.

‘‘The new signs will replace the old ones when they need replacement due to wear and tear. This may take some time.’’