Tthe D.C. Taxicab Commission released several sketches and artists' renditions of the new proposed designs for the city's taxicabs Wednesday.
The commission made their formal announcement Wednesday that the city's taxis will be standardized as red with a gray stripe, which News4 reported Monday.
Artists' renditions depict the design on five different vehicles, including a Ford Crown Victoria, Toyota Prius and an MV-1 van.
The reveal comes after months of debate, speculation and a trip back to the drawing board. Four earlier proposed designs featured multiple colors and were widely met with ridicule. Councilmember Mary Cheh had called those designs "ghastly."
In February, a panel recommended that all cabs be red, saying the color is "strongly associated" with the city. Red is already used by the Circulator line and Capital Bikeshare. The city's new streetcars, which began arriving for testing in the District on Tuesday, also mimic the Circulator's design.
The commission will take comments on the new taxi design from the public for 30 days. A public hearing is set for May.
Once the final design is approved, all new cabs will have to comply with the new color scheme, News4's Tom Sherwood reported.
Any existing cabs that get a new paint job -- for instance, due to an accident -- will have to get the new colors as well. Cabs in the District aren't permitted to be more than seven years old, so it will take that long for all other colors to be phased out.
A uniform color scheme was part of a package of reforms approved last year by the D.C. Council.
The Taxicab Commission also took another step toward implementing new regulations for sedan services including those that use the Über app. They will have to provide customers with an estimated cost before the trip and a receipt at the end of any trip. Über sedans already comply with the new regulations, News4’s Mark Segraves reported.
The Taxicab Commission dealt a setback to a new app called Sidecar that allows people to share a ride and pay whatever they think it’s worth. The taxi commission informed Sidecar that its drivers will be considered taxi drivers, so the cars will need to have taxicab tags and the drivers will need taxi licenses. Officials admitted it will be hard to enforce without setting up a sting operation.
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