To the editor: Kudos to Steve Lopez for his article on driving tests at the DMV. I took the test last March to renew my driver's license. I failed it and had to take it again six weeks later and passed. I am 93 years old and have taken that test routinely since 1957 when I moved to California.
I'll never know why I should do it again. It seems so obvious to me that if a person of my age is required to take a test, it should be in the form of a practical driving test. Traffic laws rarely change, but a driver's ability to continue driving at an advanced age (under 93, I might add) can be questionable.
Bob Murtha, Santa Maria
..
To the editor: I’ve been reading Lopez since he started working for the Times. When he started writing about older people, I got upset and wrote to him to ask him not to do it. I thought his columns would be really boring. I don’t know how old he was then, but I’m 91 now, so I was old by his standards. I stopped reading him for a while, then started reading him again. By the time he started writing about the DMV, I had already been through a lot of those tests. Then, in April, my daughter had to take her first test. She discovered e-learning on the DMV website and passed her test easily. She then showed it to her father earlier this month. He’s 96, and that online test made his life a lot easier.
If Lopez hadn't started pointing out the horrors of DMV testing, changes would never have been made. He made a wake-up call for all of us and that made a difference. I think they should erect a statue of him in front of the Department of Motor Vehicles in Sacramento.
Dawn Sharp, Claremont
