"The industry needs to be completely reshuffled - a restart," said Ray Mundy of the St. Louis-based Center for Transportation Studies. He advised the city to turn to a franchise system that would throw the market open to fresh competition.

But at a public hearing on the controversial study, cabbies and their companies scorned Mundy - who rates the city's cabs as aging even by third-world standards - and his study as superficial and misleading.

"There is already too much competition," said Ute Cab driver Alex Sladojevic, who parked his red-and-white cab outside the City-County Building. About 40 cabs were rolled onto Washington Square to display for the council their good condition.

The real issue, the cabbies say, are unlicensed "gypsy" cabs and van shuttles that steal business from regulated cabs by "bribing" hotel bell hops.

"It's a bad idea to add more companies," Sladojevic said. "Some of us are going to end up in the street."

Mundy said he never expected the cab companies to embrace some of his recommendations.

But critics of the recommendation, including Mayor Rocky Andersen, say a municipal franchise system likely would violate Utah's Constitution.

Tyler Bowles, a Utah State University economics professor hired by the cab companies, said the study's scope was inadequate, considering the changes the council was contemplating.

Going to a franchise system, which in effect would make the city and the companies business partners, would not be in the consumers' interest, Bowles said. "Why take this leap of faith?" he warned.

It ultimately would be up to the lawyers to determine whether the franchise approach is legal, Mundy said. But the concept has withstood challenges in Los Angeles and Anaheim, Calif. "You never really know unless you have a court case."

Going to a completely new structure, Mundy said, is the only way to make a clean break with the city's convoluted regulations. Franchising also would bring about an immediate changeover to new vehicles, as companies vied for a city franchise.

Revising the existing statute, he said, "is a waste of time, effort and money. It would be better just to junk it."

Anderson said the stories about poor cab conditions and discourteous drivers are "more urban legend than fact." He asked Mundy if it was unfair to cab companies to expect them to compete in an open market when the city forces them to provide less-lucrative, around-the-clock, seven-day-a-week service to city residents. "When you have those requirements, you need protection."