For months, my advice to anyone renewing a California driver's license has been straightforward and unwavering:
Do No Go to a local DMV office and struggle with the written tests, which are riddled with confusing and irrelevant questions. Do Instead, go online and take the “NO FAIL” e-learning course from the comfort of your home.
So when I received my license renewal notice in the mail a few weeks ago, I knew exactly what to do.
Or so I thought.
I was hoping for an easy experience, like the dozens of readers who sent me their e-learning recommendations.
California is about to be hit by a wave of aging, and Steve Lopez is taking advantage of it. His column focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of advancing age, and how some people are challenging the stigma associated with older adults.
“It’s fantastic,” said Robert, a psychologist in Studio City, who found e-learning “less stressful” than the traditional exam because you’re at home and there are no “nitpicky” or “vague” questions. He completed the course, which is more of a refresher on the rules of the road for drivers than a test, and ended with the mandatory trip to a local office to get his photo taken and get his vision tested.
But others wrote to me frustrated, saying they couldn't figure out how to access the eLearning, or that the process crashed and froze, or that they went to the DMV offices to complete the process and were told there was no record of them having taken the course.
Now it was time to roll the dice.
I turned on my computer, went to DMV.CA.GOV, and easily navigated to a tab for “Standard Driver’s License ID” and “REAL ID/Driver’s License.” I already had a REAL ID, so I proceeded with a standard renewal and was instructed to create a DMV account (which was great because who isn’t dying to memorize yet another username and password?). That took several minutes, and then I ran into the first of several technical issues.
A yellow warning sign informed me: “Not eligible for online renewal at this time.”
But just below that warning was this:
“To save time, start the renewal process online and complete your renewal at a DMV office.”
So what was going to happen? Was I eligible? Was I not? Had I entered the DMV's dark zone?
I clicked on the “save time” line and eventually landed on the Virtual Testing Center, so apparently I wasn’t ineligible after all. There, I was given the option of taking the e-learning or the “Online Knowledge Test,” a digital version of the regular written test, which I knew I should avoid.
In California, if you are 70 years of age or older, you must take a test to renew your license every five years.
(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)
I chose eLearning and proceeded to the checkout page, where I was told I needed to pay the $45 renewal fee. But after charging my credit card, I was abandoned, like someone who was thrown from a car on the side of the road. There was no way to click forward or back.
A well-designed program would have made the next step very clear. Instead, I was locked out of the application system. I checked text messages and emails, but couldn't find any confirmation of my $45 payment. I went back to my DMV account, but couldn't find how to pick up where I left off.
Had he made a mistake? Had the system crashed?
I decided to repeat the whole process and paid another $45, assuming that my first payment had never been processed. And as soon as I did, I was closed again, just like before.
I checked back through emails from readers who had experienced similar problems. I searched the DMV website for any clues as to what had gone wrong. And then I saw that I had received two emails from the DMV saying that the agency had received both of my REAL-ID applications, with two identical sets of instructions for visiting a DMV office and providing proof of citizenship and residency.
E-learning was not mentioned.
It’s worth noting that DMV Director Steve Gordon was a tech executive who left Silicon Valley five years ago on a mission to overhaul and modernize the agency, which was notorious for its backlog and lack of user-friendliness. He wanted to make it easier for customers to conduct business from home rather than having to age in line at local offices.
The E in eLearning, he once told me, stands for “enjoyment.”
I began to wonder when I would start enjoying myself. I was now $90 short and had nothing to show for it. So I called DMV spokeswoman Anita Gore to tell her about the technical problems, and while we were chatting, I received an email that caught my attention.
“Please stop telling us that DMV online services work,” said La Crescenta resident Mary Mirch, whose timing was perfect.
Mirch, a retired university administrator, said she was applying for a license renewal and trying to access the e-learning course, but instead received confirmation of a REAL-ID application.
But, like me, she had not applied for a REAL-ID.
DMV Director Steve Gordon was a tech executive who left Silicon Valley five years ago with a mission to reform and modernize the agency.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
I thanked him for showing me that he was not a fool.
Like me, Mirch repeated the entire process, got the same result the second time, and was on hold at the DMV for 45 minutes, waiting for help.
“What a disaster!” he said.
More than an hour after my troubles began, the first sign of hope came via email. The DMV sent me a link to the e-learning course. Mirch said she eventually received a link, too, about two hours after she applied.
Several questions came to mind:
Why weren't we told to look for an email link to the eLearning within a couple of hours after payment?
Why did we have to wait for an email link, instead of going straight from payment to e-learning?
And why are we given instructions on how to complete REAL-ID applications?
Mirch and I both agree that the system is unnecessarily complicated and confusing, or at least it was on the day we tried to use it. The DMV recommends e-learning, which it started two years ago, so why not rule out other options? It would also help clean up all the confusing clutter on the web pages and have a tab that says, simply, “If you are 70 or older and want to use the e-learning course to renew your driver’s license, click here.”
Estela Lopez, executive director of the Downtown Los Angeles Industrial District, told me she's pretty tech-savvy, but she had much the same experience as Mirch and I.
“It makes you feel stupid, and that’s what I don’t want seniors to feel,” Lopez said. She was under the impression, thanks to the REAL-ID issue, that she had to bring her passport and utility bills to the DMV office when it was time for her photo and eye exam. So she did as she was told, only to be told she didn’t need any of that.
“I just want you to understand that no, we’re not clicking the wrong tab, we’re not hitting the wrong button,” Lopez said. “They’re not putting enough marketing and love into this. If they were, it wouldn’t be so confusing.”
There is one more thing that Mary Mirch, Estela López and I have in common.
We all thought the eLearning course was pretty good when we finally tried it.
This is a big improvement on the traditional multiple-choice test. You can start and stop the video, working at your own pace, with seven animated mini-courses offering refreshers on the rules of the road and safe driving. One section was a bit like a video game where you have to click on a parked vehicle and safely drag it into the correct lane on a busy road.
At the end of each section, you are given a short quiz with three possible answers, and if you get it wrong, you can try again. There are no trick questions or dumb questions. You don't need to study a manual before you start.
I was done in about 45 minutes and my visit to the Glendale DMV office for a new photo and eye exam was a breeze. Office managers Wanda Jackson and Patty Carranza staffed the windows in a cheerful manner and told customers they were happy to serve them. Making an appointment in advance helped me avoid long lines and I was in and out within 30 minutes.
That's why I think there have been improvements in DMV culture under Gordon's reign, and if you need to renew your license after 70, e-learning is certainly the way to go. The problem is getting there.
I forwarded the emails from several exasperated readers to the DMV, along with the obvious solutions suggested by Mirch. Gore told me the DMV appreciates the feedback and is working on improvements, including fixing the REAL ID glitch and “making the language on our website clearer.”
Okay, I'll keep an eye on that, but in the state where Silicon Valley is, in a public agency run by a former tech executive, it shouldn't take that long to get it right.
