Taxi companies operating in Juneau are asking the city to allow drivers to keep the meters running while idling in traffic. The companies claim that the fees would help to offset high gas prices.

In other major cities cabbies continue to charge customers for time spent stopped at traffic lights. Juneau cabbies charge customers an initial fee of $3.40 with an additional 22 cents for every tenth of a mile.

Cab owners have proposed that taxis be able to charge riders 75 cents a minute for idling, an idea that city manager Rod Swope said he's open to.

However without a special session called, the Juneau Assembly would not be able to approve the change until mid-August.