by Martin Hussey

D.C. may be on the verge of major changes to its taxi infrastructure. The city will soon increase fares, as The Hoya reported last month, and new regulations may force taxi drivers to improve service to less-traveled areas of the District. But a more noticeable plan may force standardization of D.C.’s taxicab livery.

Councilmember Mary Cheh, the same D.C. councilor responsible for taxi reform and for purportedly exporting the District’s rats to Maryland and Virginia, set up an online survey to test public sentiment on what the city’s taxi colors should be. Among the more than 4,000 respondents, 38 percent favored standardized yellow cabs. The city, for its part, seems to support the idea of making all taxis the same color. Cheh’s survey simply asks people to vote for their favorite color.

One of the most unique things about Washington has to be the city’s colorful taxicabs. At any given moment, people hoping to catch a cab can step into any array of colorful taxis — green, silver, white, black, blue, red, and even pink. All of the hype over taxi reform, though, begs the question: Are D.C.’s different taxi liveries one of the city’s signatures? Or should the city now standardize the livery like that of New York?

My take on it — let’s keep the taxis all different colors. I love it when I flag down a purple or maroon cab. But if we want to be boring like New York and make all our cabs yellow and expensive, that is no loss to me. I take the bus anyway.