A few years ago, the answers to the D.C. taxicab licensing test were compromised and passed around all over town. As a result, the city put a freeze on new testing and licensing for cab drivers in 2005, even for individuals who had already paid for and passed the required 60-hour training course offered at UDC (it costs $375). Well today the Examiner is reporting that starting in January, the city will once again start offering the licensing exam. The rewritten exam will only be open to people who have passed the UDC training program, but even under that condition, there are apparently already at least 2,000 people eligible for the exam right now.

There’s no way to know how many of those people will choose to pursue a taxi license at this point – if you took the class in 2005, presumably you’ve moved on to something else by now. Even more importantly, there’s no way to know whether those who did get a license would choose to buy their own car and operate independently, as opposed to working part-time for an existing company. Still, the bottom line is that starting in January, we should beging see some kind of increase in the number of taxis on D.C. streets.

Considering Washington already has the highest number of per capita taxis in the country, who do you expect to see pushback on this issue over the next couple of months?

a) Existing cab drivers worried about even more competition
b) Environmentalists worried about increased smog
c) Urban planners concerned about increased congestion
d) Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham
e) All of the above
f) Who cares, more cabs for me!

Photo by cstein96