Those who've spent any time in New York likely have found it frustrating to hear that those 'For Hire' lights on the top of cabs in S.F. often don't denote available taxis -- the explanation we always got was that more people call cabs here, via telephone, and an empty cab with the light on is likely heading to pick someone up. Those 'For Hire' lights, you see, only go off when the meter is running, and sometimes drivers leave them on when they're going off duty as well.

But now the SFMTA is going to do something about this confusion, as the Appeal reports, with a possible solution being to install a green/red light system that the driver can control to indicate his/her availability. This proposed project is likely to cost in the range of $100,000 to implement city-wide. Now if we could only get some more cabs to appear when we actually need them, we'd be all set.