TheAA no longer prioritising lone women for recovery

I'm sure nobody wants to be attacked or murdered no matter their gender. Also why put anything about height and weight, no matter the gender people will be different heights and weights doesn't make it not 'normal'

I do feel at the moment sometimes we want equality for women until it doesn't suit.

‘Lone woman priority’ was an advertising point for the AA many years ago, and may have been the only recovery company having that as part of the policy

There have been other policies that firms have such as I think the AA & RAC having the largest fleets and one of both of them at some time pledging to only use their vehicles - which is either reassuring that you will only get their staff arriving in properly marked vehicles, or not because even if you are a priority then you are still getting supported by a fixed number of vans in your area.
A potential problem could have been that the guaranteed priority was the motorbike or the little van, the bike was quickest but could only do a simple quick fix, but would have to call someone else if recovery was needed, the little van could do more but only simple toes, a full van or flat bed would be needed for bigger recovery.
An alternative that I was with for many years was Green Flag who advertised that they didn’t run their own fleet but used approved local recovery garages. The benefit of that being more vans to draw upon

It’s right that a lone woman may not be priority over everyone else, but she may still be priority depending on other circumstances

Anything on a motorway needs to be sorted fast.
I had a blow out once, and was able to pull across to the hard shoulder safely and close to an emergency phone. Rather than the advice hammered out all of the time to get out and past the barriers they asked if I had my spare etc and told me to change it. - With my car edged as tight as possible to the barrier, and me knelt on the hard shoulder changing my rear driver side tyre, feeling the air blasting as every car passed.

If that was the case surely they’d scramble whenever someone who couldn’t leave the car broke down or ban you from driving on the motorway?

Ok. So now we're waiting for an indeterminate number of women waiting for the AA (or whoever else has this policy) to be attacked/raped/killed. Then they'll be some hand wringing, with some discussion about how to choose who to prioritise on the news and talk shows. There will be discussion about statistics, about how not enough research has been done yet to say for sure that women are at more risk than men. There will of course be the discussion about how actually the most vulnerable people are trans. Then a few more women will be attacked. Then a very photogenic one will be and she will be the face that gets the AA and the rest to have a great new initiative of clicking on their new app to signal if she's being threatened.

And we basically come back to the thread running through everything: how many women need to be raped or murdered for it to be unacceptable enough that women are recognised to need protection from the violent men (because note: NAMALT, of course).

If you say you can’t leave your car, they come faster but not lights flashing drama faster

Google says over 200,000 cars break down on motorways in the uk every year and over 100 people lose their lives. I can’t see how that equates to a life expectancy of 15 mins when the vast majority survive the experience.

Erm you can lock yourself in your car. You don’t have to start wondering around an unlit car park.

But it's woefully common
(and why I avoid 'smart' motorways, which are even more dangerous)

I think they are right to look at the nature and location of the incident as one of the important factors in assigning priority.

Isn't this an issue where it's actually fairly reasonable to go with gender over sex? Surely it's signifiers of gender that a predator would be using to decide whom to attack, so that might very well include trans women.

Then they'd get a very unpleasant surprise when they find themselves faced by a person as strong as themselves. Sex is what makes women vulnerable not their gender.

Statistically men are at greater risk of a random attack so should they be prioritised?

I don't massively disagree with this policy. I'd hope the AA looked at the risk factors of the location of the car.

How many transwomen have been abducted and murdered in recent years in the UK? And how many women this year alone?

I'm aware of the statistics and that wasn't the point I was making. Asking for precision in language should go both ways, or it just seems like a prejudice against the word 'gender'.

Because far far more than a hundred cars a year end up on the hard shoulder and there would be many many more deaths if that statistic was correct. Who told you that?

I think its fair enough. The location is the important thing. Or maybe the driver has a disability so should be prioritised.

Hard shoulders are very dangerous in relation to the rest of the motorway but definitely not a life expectancy of 15 mins! That’s playing fast and lose with statistics .

Women don’t want to be attacked and murdered. Is that equality? If it’s not equality I still want to not be attacked and murdered, and I’m glad I don’t hang out with people who think the women murdered by men every 2-3 days deserve it.

This is a case of sex not gender. A 5’10 transwoman with male muscle density is not a target the same way the average woman is. I’m 5’4 and 115 pounds, a perfectly normal female height and weight.

Did they ever prioritise lone women? I agree with a PP, maybe a lone woman should be rescued before a lone man, but only all other safety concerns being equal.

Of course those on a motorway should be prioritised! Not only are they at more risk but also they are risking the lives of other motorists. It would be ridiculous to prioritise a woman in a safe position over a man on a hard shoulder.

Weather you’ve seen terrible accidents or not your life expectancy is NOT 15 minutes on a hard shoulder. Some people can’t leave the car and most vehicles are recovered safely from the hard shoulder.

Your life expectancy on a motorway hard shoulder is about 15 minutes
Don’t be ridiculous