L.A. to Run Meter on Sloppy, Rude Cabbies in May

Nasser Ahmed Yousuf was a scofflaw--and everyone within sight of his ankles knew it.

“Look at him,” shouted one of several cabdrivers standing with the young hack Monday in a taxicab holding lot just outside Los Angeles International Airport. “He’s wearing white sweat socks. You have to wear black socks. You can’t wear sweat socks. You can get penalized for wearing sweat socks.”

As the crowd of men erupted in laughter, Yousuf raised his pants legs and displayed the offending footwear.

Under one of the newest city laws, such fashion gaffes soon could put Yousuf in line for a fine. The ordinance, which Mayor Tom Bradley signed into law last February, prohibits cabdrivers from sporting such items as tank tops, leisure suits and cut-off pants.

Under an elaborate penalty points system, cab companies could be fined up to $1,500 for repeated violations of the dress code. The dress code is part of a broad taxicab ordinance that also regulates the behavior of the drivers. Drivers can be fined up to $500 for being rude to passengers, tampering with meters and other violations; their companies or cab associations can be fined a maximum of $100,000.

Officials said the city will begin citing violators on May 1.

“What can I say?” asked the young cabbie, shrugging and smiling as his fellow hacks continued to chide him. “This is cheaper than black socks. Black socks cost $7. I can’t afford that. I can afford white socks, though. They are cheap, something like $3.”

Economics aside, many cabbies across the city say the law is stupid.

“We don’t expect the law to force us to dress clean or be polite,” insisted Tamirat Chilot, a driver with United Independent Taxicab. “This is America. We know you’re supposed to take a shower; we know you don’t leave the house dirty and talk rudely to passengers. We are not animals.”

But officials at the city Department of Transportation, which will administer the law’s disciplinary system, maintain that many local cabdrivers cannot be depended upon to be nice and neat on their own.

“The law is only there because it’s needed,” said Ken Walpert, a public utilities engineering associate. “We receive complaints about the cabdrivers regularly. We get complaints about discourtesy, overcharging. Refusal to make short trips is one we receive all the time.”

However, the drivers at LAX blamed unlicensed cabbies, or “bandits,” for many of the passenger abuses.

“The bandits, if they have a scanner, they will hear about a call and go to the location,” Chilot said. “If I had a passenger in Mid-Wilshire, they’d try to go there and take him.”

Chilot said the city should focus on ferreting out bandit drivers.

“They never go after the bandits,” he said. “Instead, they harass us. The bandits, they are driving around all over the city, making the rest of us look bad. We don’t need these laws; they do.”

Gerald D’Agostino, a city Transportation Department investigator, said his department has established a task force to address the bandit problem.

Some cabdrivers said they welcome the new codes.

“Most of these things we should have been doing before,” Berhane Gherbe said. “Too many of us were not. I don’t mind if it’s good for the passenger.”

Some drivers said the law is equally as good for them.

“It’s going to make cabdrivers look respectable instead of like bums,” said Bill Swearingen as he waited for a fare in his cab in front of the Flyaway Terminal in Van Nuys. “If I got off a plane at Los Angeles Airport and saw some of the drivers, I would not get into their cabs. They look ratty.”

Morris Cooper, a driver at United Independent, said the law signaled a long-overdue return to codes that cabbies lived by when he started driving in 1939.

“There was only one way you could drive a cab then,” Cooper said, “and that was with a white shirt, a dark suit and a black tie. You had to be neat then. The city let things get out of hand. It’s the city’s fault. Now, they are trying to get back to that.”

But some drivers said the laws are too rigid.

“Laws like this are just more pressure on the cabdrivers,” Mehroad Hatami said. “It’s like when you put too much air in a balloon. Eventually, it will burst.”