D.C. has abandoned the idea of mandating that all cabs use the Verifone smart meter pictured above.

It’s 2013, and the majority of D.C.’s 6,500 taxicabs still don’t allow you to pay with credit cards. That will change by the end of March, though, as the D.C. Taxicab Commission has ordered that all cabs have credit card payment options by then, reports the Post.

Cabs were supposed to have had smart meters—which included credit card payment options, GPS and TV—by last November, product of a $35 million contract signed by city officials that would see the same type of meter installed in every cab. Only a few were ever installed, though, before a contract dispute sunk the entire endeavor.

The new order from the Taxicab Commission approaches the situation differently, merely setting a date but allowing cab drivers and companies to decide which type of credit card payment provider they’d like to go for. (Why can’t everyone just use Square?) Ironically enough, this was exactly what many cabbies were complaining about late last year—they said that they should be allowed to chose their own technology instead of going with one mandated by city regulators.

And who knows, at the time that we start seeing more credit card payment options we may finally know what uniform color scheme the cabs will have to adopt.