The lengthy statewide nightmare has ended.
After months of irritating technical glitches, complicated choices and maddeningly irrelevant take a look at questions, most California drivers 70 and older who apply to resume their driver’s license will not be required to take a information take a look at or the net coaching course.
On the entire, that is excellent news. However as is commonly the case with the DMV, Monday’s announcement was a little bit of a head-scratcher, coming after months of makes an attempt by the company to replace its mess of a web site and make clear the a number of test-taking choices for older drivers.
California is about to be hit by an growing old inhabitants wave, and Steve Lopez is driving it. His column focuses on the blessings and burdens of advancing age — and the way some people are difficult the stigma related to older adults.
I’m one of many many 1000’s of suckers who endured the system, having lately renewed my license. I believe we should always get again our $45 renewal payment, and I’m questioning if anybody cares to second the movement. Actually, I ought to get again $90 as a result of the net eLearning possibility was so laborious for me to get to, I by chance paid twice.
So why drop the requirement in any case of that work to refine the method and educate the general public?
The reply shouldn’t be totally satisfying.
“If thousands fewer people need to visit the DMV, or can spend less time in an office, the people who need to take care of their business in one of our offices can be better served,” DMV Director Steve Gordon mentioned in a written assertion.
Spokesperson Anita Gore had the breakdown, telling me the brand new rule will imply that every month, 50,000 fewer folks will probably be visiting a DMV workplace to take a renewal take a look at. That’s anticipated to unencumber workers to deal with registration, Actual ID and different enterprise, and to scale back wait instances for these companies.
OK, however did Gordon actually get up sooner or later and resolve it was time to provide older drivers an early Christmas current, or was this about power staffing shortages within the midst of a state funds crunch, or a concession that the DMV couldn’t repair its amateurish web site and clunky on-line testing purposes?
“The DMV has been on this journey for several years to improve customer service and digitize services, and this is one more step in that process,” Gore mentioned.
She informed me she was unaware of whether or not Gordon, who was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom 5 years in the past, mentioned this concept along with his boss. However she mentioned Gordon is in common communication with the administration concerning the adjustments he has instituted since leaving a profession in Silicon Valley to attempt to modernize and elevate the DMV, which has lengthy been one of many state’s most dreaded public businesses.
DMV spokesperson Anita Gore says the brand new rule will imply that every month, 50,000 fewer folks will probably be visiting a DMV workplace to take a renewal take a look at.
Gordon has informed me there is no such thing as a robust correlation between testing and driving capability. That was one cause he’s been emphasizing the eLearning course (which you’ll be able to take on-line) as an alternative choice to the standard information take a look at (which may be taken on-line or in individual at a DMV workplace).
The eLearning course, which I took after I renewed two months in the past, is an animated 45-minute rules-of-the-road program that has the benefit of being fail-proof. A narrator leads you thru a number of segments of instruction, every of which is adopted by a quiz. In case you get a solution flawed, you possibly can guess once more till you get it proper.
However I nonetheless heard from a variety of readers who, like me, struggled to determine find out how to entry this system.
And from a ton of readers with a long time of fresh driving information who studied laborious, fretted for days and nonetheless flunked the standard information assessments, because of ridiculous questions they insisted had no bearing on their capability behind the wheel.
They weren’t flawed.
Probably the most mocked questions was concerning the advantageous for abandoning an animal on the aspect of the highway, as if that’s a standard prevalence for anybody, not to mention drivers 70 and older.
After which there have been these:
“What is another name for the hand-to-hand steering method?”
Who cares?
“What is the minimum number of years of imprisonment for a person … convicted of manslaughter resulting from evading law enforcement during a pursuit?”
I don’t know, however is jail out of the query for whomever got here up with that query?
“To identify hazards, you should scan the road how many seconds in front of your vehicle?”
Are they kidding?
No, they weren’t, however in an indication of progress, a number of months in the past the DMV truly started dumping among the goofier questions readers complained about.
Though most drivers 70 and older at the moment are off the hook for the assessments, they’re nonetheless going to have to enter a DMV workplace for a watch examination and a photograph.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Instances)
So now that it’s a brand new day in California for older drivers, what are you alleged to do should you already bought a license renewal discover within the mail, or should you get one within the coming days and weeks?
You possibly can ignore the test-taking directions since you’re off the hook. You’re nonetheless going to have to enter a DMV workplace for a watch examination and a photograph, however the DMV is contemplating the opportunity of — sometime — accepting clearance from a watch physician and arising with a distant possibility for the picture.
There are, nonetheless, some caveats with the brand new guidelines.
In case you’re a first-time driver, or moved lately to California, or have a poor driving file, sorry, however you’re nonetheless going to should take a information take a look at or eLearning course no matter your age.
One final level about testing:
Since I started writing concerning the DMV almost two years in the past, I’ve heard from readers who thought the requirement of a take a look at for drivers older than 70 was a case of age discrimination. However I by no means totally agreed.
Positive, unhealthy drivers are available all ages. However for many of us, gradual visible impairment is inevitable, response time slows, and night time driving turns into extra of a problem. As I’ve mentioned earlier than, it’s value having a dialogue about whether or not there ought to be an precise behind-the-wheel driving take a look at after a sure age, which might be much more helpful than a information take a look at.
Do you agree? And if that’s the case, what age would that be?
In case you’d prefer to weigh in, the place to search out me.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
