WTOP is reporting that the the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority plans to ban taxicabs without meters from taxi stands at Reagan National Airport. That’s good. Regular roundtrips to DCA are the D.C. taxi driver’s bread and butter, and the airport taxi stands have dispatch employees there to assist passengers who are ready and able to enforce the meter rule.

But MWAA says it will begin enforcing this rule at National on June 1, one month after the actual deadline for when drivers were supposed to have meters installed. Yes, the city isn’t technically collecting $1,000 fines for noncompliance until June 1 either, but the mayor’s office has made a point of saying that the May 1 deadline is the law, even if drivers will only receive warnings during the month of May.

The assistance from MWAA in enforcing this regulation is certainly welcome, but it also only reinforces the attitude some D.C. taxicab drivers seem to have that the “real” deadline is June 1.

Photo by {ryan}