http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/ ... incart_mce

New Orleans taxicab drivers have long been required to be able to read and write English. The City Council now has added a new requirement: that drivers be able to "fluently speak" the language.

Times-Picayune archiveTaxis queue up at Louis Armstrong International Airport as they wait to be summoned to the terminal. A new regulation stipulates that cab drivers must be able to speak Enlish 'fluently.'
The council approved the change 7-0 Thursday without discussion.

The law does not specify who will judge how fluent applicants' English is, or what standards will be used.

Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, chairwoman of the council's Transportation Committee, sponsored the measure.

As in many other U.S. cities, a sizable proportion of New Orleans' cab drivers now come from Middle Eastern countries, with others coming from Latin America or other nations where English is not the principal language.

Palmer said she has heard stories of drivers whose English is so limited that they cannot understand passengers' instructions about where they want to go. Instead, she said, the drivers hand passengers cellphones so they can give their destination to an English speaker, who then translates the information into the driver's native language.

Longtime local taxi riders, however, are aware that even native drivers' command of the language sometimes is a little shaky, and that city officials have loosely interpreted the previous requirement that drivers and cab owners be able to read and write English.

The latest action is part of a continuing push by the Landrieu administration and the council to clean up the city's oft-derided taxi industry.

A passengers' "bill of rights" that the council passed earlier this month included a provision that passengers are entitled to "a driver who speaks and understands English and is knowledgeable of the metropolitan area."