Letters to the Editor: California DMV tests don’t make sense, especially for seniors
A line of people stretches around a Department of Motor Vehicles office in South L.A.
To the editor: Kudos to Steve Lopez for his article regarding the 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 three years old and have taken that test routinely since 1957, when I moved to California.
Why I should have to take it again I’ll never know. It seems so obvious to me that if a person my age is required to be tested, it should be with the behind-the-wheel driving test. The driving laws hardly ever change, but a driver’s ability to keep driving at an advanced age (less than 93, I might add) can be questionable.
Bob Murtha, Santa Maria
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To the editor: I have read Lopez since he began working for the Times. When he switched to writing about old people, I was upset and wrote to him asking him not to do it. I thought his columns would be really boring. I don’t know how old I was then, but I’m 91 now so I was old by his standards. I gave up reading him for a while and then drifted back. By the time he started writing about the DMV, I had gone through lots of those tests. Then in April my daughter had to take her first test. She discovered the eLearning on the DMV website and passed her test easily. Then she showed her dad earlier this month. He is 96 and that online test made life so much easier.
If Lopez had not started pointing out the horrors of the DMV tests, no changes would ever have been made. He made a loud noise for all of us and it 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
