Dress Code for Cabbies? <i> Hmm . . . .</i>

Get into a taxi in Tokyo, and you’ll often find the driver immaculately dressed, down to his spotless white gloves. Hail a taxi in London, and you can expect your driver to be fairly well turned out. Ah, but catch a cab in Los Angeles, and be prepared for what is often a close encounter of the dirtier kind.

Not all local cabbies, to be sure, evince a sartorial grunginess. But enough do so that the Los Angeles City Council, responding to rising public complaints, finally felt compelled in January to order a dress code for cabbies. The city’s Transportation Commission has now come up with one.

Banned, beginning today, are shorts, sweat suits, cutoffs, shirts with more than two buttons open at the collar, shirts that aren’t tucked in, sandals, open-toed shoes, bare feet, unpolished shoes, bib overalls, leisure suits or the dreaded plaid trousers. Women cabbies are expected to wear skirts that are solid in color and at least knee-length. Jeans are discouraged; if they are worn they must be designer quality. At least two of the city’s eight cab companies will now require their drivers to wear ties. Finally, all drivers are expected to be free of “objectionable odors.”

Well, we certainly agree with that. But we’re not so sure the issue rankling most Los Angelenos is how cabbies look; more likely, it’s what they do. So we especially like the part in the new code wherein drivers who are rude, who tamper with meters, or who refuse to accept or take passengers where they want to go face fines of up to $500, and wherein the companies they work for could be hit far harder.

Now, if only all drivers knew more than just how to get to the airport and where the big hotels are. But that is probably too much to hope for.