What is it about taxis that makes colour so controversial?
In 2009 I posted about the situation in Derby (UK) where the council introduced a new rule saying that all official taxis should be yellow and then got into trouble when they said that one taxi driver’s taxi was not exactly the right shade of yellow. How did they specify the colour?
A couple of years later there was a major political storm over a proposal for Durham (also UK – ooops …. embarrassing!!!) to adopt white as the official taxi colour.
Then in 2012 I wrote about taxi colour in Beijing. Well, this was not exactly news but by now taxi colour was starting to interest me!!
But guess what? Today, another genuine taxi colour story. This time it is in USA. The D.C. Taxicab Commission’s One Color Panel recommended Wednesday that District taxis be coloured red. Apparently, “Red is a color that is strongly associated with the District, both among residents and visitors,” the colour panel said in a statement. “The Stars and Bars of the District flag are red. Each of the major sports franchises in the District has a shade of red as a prominent part of the uniform. In the area of transportation, both the District’s Circulator bus and the Capital BikeShare vehicles are red.” All taxis will be required to change to the new colour within five years.
Having white as a taxi colour seems almost bizarre, they need to be seen and white is a popular colour for cars. Yellow is the most visible colour in the spectrum hence its use for taxis’. You need to be able to scan a busy street and see a taxi immediately.
There is only one yellow, pure, bright, unadulterated. If it isn’t this hue then something has been added to it. Maybe they should have been more specific.
Red, hmmm. assoicated with danger, aggression, passion, yep definitely a mixed message.
Interesting subject.