In an effort to fill the large, gaping hole of necessity for more cabbies in San Francisco, it makes sense that imposter taxicabs try to fill that need. According to today's Examiner, "at least 30 illegitimate cab companies are operating in San Francisco." Which means that there are almost as many illegal cab companies in San Francisco as there are legal ones. (SF has 32 licensed companies.) Last year alone, the article goes on to say, there were "nearly 200 illegal cab pickups in San Francisco last year and officers on taxi detail arrested 33 drivers in December alone." The problem, if there is one, is that illegal cab companies don't perform criminal background checks on their employees, and fake cabbies tend to overcharge their passengers.

San Francisco plans to step up enforcement by aggressively fining designer imposter cabbies or cab companies $5,000 per violation. However, catching them in the act is the hard part. The Municipal Transportation Agency "must prove that allegedly illegal entities are operating without a permit and falsely posing as legitimate cab services" in order to slap them with said fines. This Tuesday, the SFMTA board of directors will vote whether or not to "reduce the amount of evidence needed to seek fines."

While they're at it, maybe they can come up with a way to distribute more medallions for more cabs. We kid. Because that's never ever, ever going to happen.