Gray Proposes New Taxi Color Scheme

As promised, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray unveiled four proposed color schemes for the city's taxicabs Monday.

A unified color scheme is one piece of the tax-modernization legislation passed by the D.C. Council earlier this year. The plan also includes "smart meters" that will accept credit cards.

Residents will have a chance to vote on their favorite colors -- sort of -- at dctaxi.dc.gov. The D.C. Taxicab Commission will make the final decision, but they'll take public opinion into account.

You can also "vote" on Twitter, using the hashtag #votedctaxi.

The discussion's already begun, and Dave Salovesh ‏(@darsal) offered a vote against the red-and-white color scheme: "Red+white traditionally means fire / ambulance. Don't want that diluted - bad enough the police cruise with lights on." 

Matt Ashburn ‏(@mattashburn) was also concerned things could get confusing: "Really dislke all DC's proposed taxi designs. Point of taxi colors is to make them easily distinguishable/identifyable as a cab."

And Alex Block (@alex_block) raises the following point: "The DC taxi commission has a panel on 'one color' taxis: http://dctaxi.dc.gov/node/385392  So, why are none of the #votedctaxi options a single color?"

The commission will likely wait until the spring to make a final decision, after weighing the opinions of Gray, the D.C. Council and members of the public.

A moratorium on new cabs in the city lasts expires June 30, which means that we could start seeing the new color scheme on the streets by early summer, said News4's Tom Sherwood.

However, existing cabs won't be required to adhere to the new color scheme. It could be at least seven years before the transformation is complete. That's because, as part of the new legislation, D.C. taxis can no longer be more than seven years old.


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