The SJPD permits department, however, is not eager to provide the answer to the drivers' questions. Spokesman Carrillo, however, blames the increase in inspections on past driver conduct. As of press time, police were unable to provide records of those complaints or of citations issued, but Carrillo estimates that 90 percent of the cab meters checked by police at that time showed evidence of tampering, with the state inspector's seal broken. Buried in the same city muni codes that declare the sanctity of public convenience are stipulations that aspiring cab companies must own the clear title to at least five cars. San Jose's muni codes require that single-car cab owners affiliate themselves with existing companies, which can cost as much as the annual tuition of a Stanford University law student.
SJPD officials defend the five-car minimum.
But while Widman discounts the idea of single-car companies, he is unable to explain why they would be such a bad thing for the city of San Jose. It's like going through a red light. Yet a system of single-car taxi companies has turned cities like Washington, D.C., into transit utopias, where cabs really do wait outside most busy public establishments during peak hours. Washington's ratio of cabs to people has been estimated at one cab for every 84 people, and cabbies in the capital can afford to be idle because they don't have the expenses that San Jose drivers face. According to Jacqueline Smith, aspiring single-cab owners in the capital can, after paying the regular annual licensing fees, become independent by simply painting their own name on their car door.