Zurich has launched a novel experiment to make prostitution safer: publicly funded drive-in "sex boxes".

The teak-coloured wooden garages will be open for business from Monday for drive-in customers in a country where prostitution has been legal since 1942 on the outskirts of the Swiss city. The several dozen sex workers who are expected to use them can stand along a short road in a small, circular park where they can negotiate with clients. The park was built in a former industrial area between a rail yard and the fence along a major highway.

The publicly funded facilities – away from the city centre and open all night – include bathrooms, lockers, small cafe tables, a laundry and shower. Men won't have to worry about video surveillance cameras, but the sex workers – who will need a permit and pay tax – will have a panic button and access to on-site social workers trained to look after them.

Voters in Zurich approved the project as a way of moving sex traffic away from a busy downtown area where it had become a public nuisance and safety concern. Photograph: Ennio Leanza/AP

Daniel Hartmann, a Zurich lawyer, welcomed the new facility, saying: "Safety for the prostitutes. At least, it's a certain kind of a shelter for them. They can do their business, and I respect them."

He added: "They do a great job, and they have better working conditions here … They're not exposed to the bosses, to the pimps, in here."

But others are not so sure. Brigitta Hanselmann, a retired special needs schoolteacher from Embrach, north of the city, said: "I have to think about it for a long time, because it's so incredible that a city offers that to the men, and it's interesting that there are many, many women here who are looking at it." She called the sex boxes an effort to control something that you could not really control. Prostitution has been legal in Switzerland since 1942.

The sex boxes will have a panic button and on-site social workers trained to look after them. Photograph: John Heilprin/AP

Voters in Zurich approved spending up to SFr2.4m ($2.6m) on the project last year as a way of moving away from a downtown area where it had become a public nuisance and because of safety concerns over a lack of sanitation, aggressive men and associated drugs and violence. The city, which only allows prostitution in certain areas, also plans to spend SFr700,000 a year to keep the sex boxes running.

Jean-Marc Hensch, a business executive who heads a neighbourhood association in another part of Zurich, hoped the boxes succeeded because of concerns that the sex worker might return to his area. He also cited the lack of sanitation in other city areas where prostitutes and their clients defecated and urinated in the streets and in gardens, or had sex in the open because they had nowhere else to go.

"It's an experiment," he said, of the sex boxes. "It was absolutely urgent to find a solution."

The drive-in sheds have no doors to shut and come equipped with an emergency call button on the passenger side of the structure that sets off a flashing light and an alarm inside an adjacent office building where the city will post social workers specially trained to provide a measure of security. The Zurich police say they will increase patrols around the perimeter of the facility to protect the sex workers when they leave and enter.

Modelled after drive-in brothels used in Germany and the Netherlands, the sex boxes will be open daily from 7pm to 5am. Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Modelled after the drive-in brothels used in several cities in Germany and the Netherlands, which have had mixed success improving safety, the sex boxes will be open daily from 7pm to 5am. The city has painted the outdoor bathrooms in soft pink and blue, strung colourful light bulbs among the trees and posted creative signs encouraging the use of condoms to spruce the place up a little and make it seem more pleasant.

"We built the place to be secure for the sex workers. It also had to be discreet for the sex workers and the clientele," said Michael Herzig, of Zurich's social welfare department. "But we thought if we build the place, we can also make it look good."

Zurich requires that street sex workers register with city and health authorities, and it offers health checks and requires that sex workers be at least 18 years old, in keeping with a Council of Europe convention on protecting children from exploitation and abuse.

In Switzerland, anyone who works in the sex trade must be at least 16, the legal age of sexual maturity. The income is taxed and subject to social insurance like any other economic activity.

No video surveillance was installed at the sex boxes, so as not to scare off business, but also because police and city officials concluded after studying the handful of other such facilities in Europe that the only thing that would improve safety is an on-site security presence. To use the place, sex workers also must obtain a special permit, at a cost of 40 Swiss francs ($43) a year, and pay 5 francs ($5.40) a night in taxes, which helps the city offset maintenance costs.

"We can't solve the whole problem of exploitation and human trafficking," said Herzig, "but at least we want to reduce the harm, especially the violence."