Well, this isn’t exactly what we were expecting. Rather than voting to endorse a change to meters, or keeping the existing zone system, or the third-option of those “zone meters” we talked about yesterday, the D.C. Taxicab Commission today decided to do … absolutely nothing. The Post has more, describing today’s meeting as being deadlocked, which led to the non-decision to recommend that Mayor Fenty make the call all on his own.

This is just the latest stupid incident in the long history of the famously incompetent taxi agency. Just last month, the commission canceled a public hearing on this very issue the day of, citing a lack of parking. And of course, there are decades of stories we could sift through regarding the ineffectiveness of the commission when it comes to taking any action whatsoever in response to customer complaints about drivers who break the law — stories that led Mayor Anthony Williams to a failed attempt to abolish the agency in 2004, only to be thwarted by a 12-hour cabbie strike which briefly brought Washington to a standstill.

Mayor Fenty has been keeping mum on the issue of switching to meters ever since he took office, but it is now time for him to speak up on what he really thinks the city ought to do regarding taxi regulation — both whether we should switch to meters or not, and whether the useless D.C. Taxicab Commission ought to once again be looked at for major reform.

Photo by terecico