ZURICH – Trust the sensible Swiss to develop a safe, reasonably sane way to deal with the world’s oldest profession. Instead of attempting outlaw street prostitution and criminalizing sex workers, Zurich has installed what already have been dubbed “drive-in sex boxes.”

The first of the hedonistic hideaways, in the discussion and planning stages for several years, are expected to open Aug. 26. Each comprises a wooden enclosure designed to let streetwalkers and their clients conduct business discreetly and safely.

“They look like shelters for hikers in a national park,” one reporter for the UK’s Telegraph newspaper noted.

The first nine sex boxes, located in a former industrial park, are part of Zurich authorities’ effort to limit public disruption while improving security for prostitutes and their clients.

Prostitution is legal in Switzerland. Always pragmatic, Swiss authorities long ago decided it made more sense to regulate something they couldn’t expunge, so the government registers prostitutes and takes a cut of five Swiss francs (about U.S. $5.44) per shift from each sex worker.

Zurich voters apparently took a similarly pragmatic approach in approving the sex-box plan during a referendum last year.

As explained in published reports, the concept works something like this: Up to 40 prostitutes will be allowed to station themselves along a clearly marked route to the facility. As prospective johns drive along the route, they pick out a companion and negotiate a fee, then proceed to one of the sex boxes and … well, proceed.

Each sex box is decorated with signs advocating safe sex. In addition, each box is equipped with an alarm the prostitute can trigger if she feels threatened by her client.

Judging by the sex boxes’ spartan layout, the client’s car is intended to serve as a hotel room stand-in.

Pedestrians and motorbikes are not allowed to use the sex boxes, and johns who solicit sex workers outside of three approved zones in Zurich face fines of up to U.S. $500.

“We want to regulate prostitution, because until now it was the law of the jungle,” Zurich bureaucrat Michael Herzig explained. “It was the pimps who decided the prices, for instance. We are trying to reach a situation which is better for the prostitutes themselves, for their health and security and also for people who live in Zurich.”