Denzil Minnan-Wong, darling of the taxi industry, wants to force all cab companies to use the same car

According to the Globe and Mail:

Last month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a 10-year contract with Nissan to build its NV200 concept cab, designed specifically for the Big Apple.

The NV200 won out over submissions from Ford and Karsan, a Turkish company, and features passenger airbags, independent climate controls, filtered interior air, USB ports, high fuel efficiency and a transparent roof. It can also be adapted to hybrid or full electric propulsion.

“I don’t have any preconceived notion of what it should look like,” said Mr. Minnan-Wong of the Toronto cab.

Discussing the matter in council yesterday, the spectre of the disastrous Toronto a la Cart program—the last time the city tried to force a one-size-fits-all piece of equipment on unwilling businesses—hung over the debate and was mentioned early in the proceedings. It might be a bit soon for that kind of panic, but Minnan-Wong knows as well as anyone that the city is capable of finding any number of creative ways to ham up a simple plan.

That said, the proposal does have some things going for it. If nothing else, the New York cabs seem pretty cool, but we can see a slew of political hurdles that need to be navigated first. The biggest and most obvious: cab companies likely don’t want to buy an entire new fleets of cars if the ones they’re currently using are running just fine. Also, it’s not exactly a small-government solution, so there may be some push-back from the mayor’s office (especially if the phone starts ringing). We’ll be waiting and watching to see what city staff recommends in September.

• Calls for a Toronto-style cab [Toronto Sun] • Councillor calls for uniform cabs on Toronto streets [Globe and Mail] • Councillor wants an exclusive taxicab in Toronto [City News]