THE City of Perth has introduced female-only parking bays in a CBD carpark.

The 28 “female friendly” bays in the City of Perth Pier Street carpark — out of a total of 700 bays — are located close to the entrance and exits and the area includes upgraded lighting and additional CCTV cameras, City of Perth chief executive Martin Mileham told news.com.au.

“Men won’t be fined if they park in the bays but the City encourages men to support this trial,” he said.

The trial starts from next week and will run for three months. The feedback so far has been supportive, Mr Mileham said.

“The aim of the trial is to provide parking options in the city to improve service and the customer experience.

“This has been done overseas and the City is conducting this trial to determine if there’s a demand for this type of service,” he said.

Female parking bays exist in several other countries, including Germany, China and Korea.

But some have copped criticism for making the car spaces wider, implying that women are worse at driving than men.

The female-only bays in the Pier St carpark are the same size as regular parking bays.

President of the National Council of Women Australia, Barbara Baikie, says the trial bays would be “very difficult” to police.

“I understand why that may be necessary to keep women safe, but I would think this is just a band-aid solution,” she said.

“A much better solution would be to educate young men to respect women and not attack them.”