Yes, you could eventually be riding around in one of these.

When the D.C. Council passed taxicab modernization legislation earlier this year, it left the Taxicab Commission with the responsibility of finding a uniform color or design for the city’s 6,500 taxicabs. Delegating made sense: the last thing you want is design by committee, especially if that committee is made up by elected officials.

But after the commission unveiled nine proposed designs yesterday, various councilmembers are having second thoughts about the role they should play. According to the Post, Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) wants to step in and mandate a single color—likely yellow—to save the city’s residents the indignity of having to travel in a cab that resembles a Brazilian flag. (Yes, one does.)

Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), the author of the taxicab legislation, told us today that the designs she’s seen have made her think twice about stepping in. “I’m a little disappointed with what they’ve come up with, and if it takes the council getting back into it to make it sensible, then I’m willing to look into it,” she said.

Cheh—who yesterday called the designs “horrid”—said that she disliked the use of multiple colors. “Most people were thinking of a color, not a kaleidoscope,” she argued, pointing to a survey of 4,000 residents that her office conducted in January where 38 percent of respondents said they favored yellow as a uniform color, while 15 percent opted for red and 11 percent for orange.

“Part of the issue of the color is not only that it be distinctive and uniform, but that it be of a nature that people could readily see the number of the taxi and the number to call if there’s a problem. I think with all of these colors and stripes, they make that obscure, and that defeats one of the main purposes of it,” she added.

As for what to do next, Cheh said she was open to a number of options. “We could revisit [the designs ourselves], or we could ask people who are experts at this to make some recommendations to us. I don’t think that I have the corner on what’s best, but I can tell you we can all pretty much see what’s not good,” she said.

Of course, the danger of the council stepping in is that each councilmember will have a different opinion on what color the city’s cabs should be. Evans likes yellow, but Councilmember Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) prefers red. As for Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), he’d like to see the city’s “Taxation Without Representation” message worked into a color scheme or design.

As for Taxicab Commissioner Ron Linton, he told the Post that if councilmembers wanted to propose some colors or designs themselves, they certainly could. “If they feel that way, they are the policy makers. The council makes the law, we implement the law. They made a law, we are trying to implement that.”

UPDATE, 2:45 p.m.: The Post now has the Gray administration on record: “The council is too busy to do campaign finance reform, but they want to legislate the color of taxis? This is the procedure the legislation provided for. They already legislated this,” said Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro.