The housing prices were lower. The streets were quieter. But there was one thing that caught her off guard.

She couldn't get a taxi.

So a few months later, also unable to hail a job, she started her own cab company.

The company, Western Transit Taxi, started in early October, adding one more way to get around in western Wake County, known more for lines of cars on N.C. 55 than hordes of pedestrians hailing cabs.

Keana said she paid nearly $10,000 in start-up fees to put her tires on the road: $6,000 for the car, $1,000 in insurance, $300 to register the business, and the rest in miscellaneous costs.

"The process was so tedious," said the 40-year old, who originally hails from Kenya. She said the town's requirements for taxi drivers include looking for a commercial insurance policy with coverage plans up to $300,000 and a criminal background and driving history check from the police department. The town also sets her meter rates. Rates can't exceed $2 for the first two-tenths of a mile, and then they cost $1.25 for each additional mile.

Keana can't go over that rate, but she can offer less-expensive flat fees. She's currently giving every new customer a 10 percent discount on their first ride.

But she hopes it'll all pay off. She's already added a second taxi to her fleet -- both distinguished by dark green paint job with her name and logo set off in bright yellow.

She said her biggest fare so far has come in at $60, for a trip from Fuquay-Varina to Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

It's one of the most common fares, according to local taxi drivers.

Henry Talam, who drives for Holly Springs Taxi, said he picks up a lot of corporate clients going to and from the airport -- many of them scientists from the new vaccine plant in the area, Novartis.

He knows he's Keana's direct competition in an area where residents either don't want to take a taxi, he said, or they don't know they're available.

"Most people have cars," Talam said. But marketing has been key for the three-year old company, which gets referrals from Raleigh taxi companies that don't serve Wake County. "What we're trying to do is make people aware that we're around."

Keana knows she's going to have to do the same. Luckily, people have been calling her, checking to see that she really exists, jotting her number down for a future date.

It's been a good seven years since Fuquay-Varina has had a taxi service. There have only been two others in recent memory, each of which went out of business, according to town records.

Twin City Cab stopped renewing its operation certificate in 1996 and Carolina Taxi last renewed in 2002.

But even the cabbies who've been around 25 years are still hustling for business, but don't necessarily want the Wake County market. It's too far away and too few to devote any drivers to.

Harold Dover has owned and ran Yellow Cab Inc. in Raleigh the past 25 years. He said he rarely gets calls from Wake County, and when he does he has to make sure it's worth his while to make the trip out.

He services Cary at no extra charge, but for Apex, Fuquay-Varina, Holly Springs and Morrisville residents, he takes down their credit card numbers and charges a surcharge in advance of $1.50 per mile to the pick-up location.

He said he's been burned before by Wake County callers who find other transportation before his taxi driver can reach them.

If customers don't want to pay the surcharge, he'll refer them to Holly Springs Taxi Service.

Keana hopes she can be a second option.

She knows she could have used one this past spring. She came to Willow Spring carless, not realizing getting around Wake County without one would be such a dilemma.

So she's hoping to catch others in a similar bind.

"If I need it," she said, "then more people need it."