Pike/Pine nightlife will have a new feature designed to help make sure revelers get home safely — and better organize the fleet of taxi cabs that serve the city. A stretch of the south side of E Pike just west of 10th Ave is now marked as one of five new neighborhood taxi stands nightlife areas of the city.

The new stands will provide a standing and queu area for taxis from 10p to 6a as part of the city’s ongoing initiatives to boost Seattle’s nightlife economy. The zones are painted, signed and ready to go — enforcement starts this Thursday.

The city’s town cars — including Capitol Hill’s Uber service —  might also be in for some changes as Mayor Mike McGinn said he now has “more authority at city level to start regulating town cars” during his announcement on the start of the new zones.

McGinn also said that he expect the Washington Liquor Control Board to need more time in its consideration of Seattle’s petition to extend liquor service hours in the city given the changes brought on by the passage of initiative 1183 and the change to privatize the state’s liquor industry. If you missed it, our sister site Central District News featured a lively debate in its comments following the East Precinct Advisory Council’s call for opposition to the proposal. The Stranger’s attempt to skewer the group’s opposition is here.

We first reported on the taxi stand plan in July but wrangling over location and the loss of street parking in the five areas of the city where the stands will be added helped hold up implementing the plan. On Capitol Hill, some E Pike business owners advocated for the stand to be located on a stretch of street where no parking would be lost such as a bus zone or an existing 3-minute load zone. One business owner said he has suggested alternative locations for the zone including a pre-existing taxi zone on 10th Ave or the bus stop at Pine and Broadway with a coordinated schedule that would eliminate the stop during the taxi stand hours or adjust the stand hours to start once bus service at the stop ceases for the night.

In the end, the side of the street with smaller businesses Square Room, Ballet and the Comet appears to have benefitted from a compromise locating the Pike taxi area on the south side of the street along Neumos.

The stretch now marked with bright yellow and a new — but already stickered — TAXI CABS ONLY sign will remain a mix of standard and commercial loading paid street parking between 8a and 8p before flipping over to a restricted taxi zone overnight until 6a. For four hours a day, and all day Sunday starting at 6a, those coveted Pike/Pine parking spots will exist in a tantalizing, no-cost limbo. We predict tow trucks and tickets. The temptation is too great, time, too short.