Column: DMV dumps license renewal tests for most drivers 70 and older — finally

The long statewide nightmare has ended.

After months of irritating technical glitches, confusing options and maddeningly irrelevant test questions, most California drivers 70 and older who apply to renew their driver’s license will no longer be required to take a knowledge test or the online training course.

On the whole, this is good news. But as is often the case with the DMV, Monday’s announcement was a bit of a head-scratcher, coming after months of attempts by the agency to update its mess of a website and clarify the multiple test-taking options for older drivers.

California is about to be hit by an aging population wave, and Steve Lopez is riding it. His column focuses on the blessings and burdens of advancing age — and how some folks are challenging the stigma associated with older adults.

Read his other columns

I’m one of the many thousands of suckers who endured the system, having recently renewed my license. I think we should get back our $45 renewal fee, and I’m wondering if anyone cares to second the motion. In fact, I should get back $90 because the online eLearning option was so hard for me to get to, I accidentally paid twice.

So why drop the requirement after all of that work to refine the process and educate the public?

The answer is not entirely 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 said in a written statement.

Spokesperson Anita Gore had the breakdown, telling me the new rule will mean that each month, 50,000 fewer people will be visiting a DMV office to take a renewal test. That’s expected to free up staff to handle registration, Real ID and other business, and to reduce wait times for those services.

OK, but did Gordon really wake up one day and decide it was time to give older drivers an early Christmas present, or was this about chronic staffing shortages in the midst of a state budget crunch, or a concession that the DMV couldn’t fix its amateurish website and clunky online testing applications?

“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 said.

She told me she was unaware of whether Gordon, who was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom five years ago, discussed this idea with his boss. But she said Gordon is in regular communication with the administration about the changes he has instituted since leaving a career in Silicon Valley to try to modernize and elevate the DMV, which has long been one of the state’s most dreaded public agencies.

DMV spokesperson Anita Gore says the new rule will mean that each month, 50,000 fewer people will be visiting a DMV office to take a renewal test.

Gordon has told me there is no strong correlation between testing and driving ability. That was one reason he’s been emphasizing the eLearning course (which you can take online) as an alternative to the traditional knowledge test (which can be taken online or in person at a DMV office).

The eLearning course, which I took when I renewed two months ago, is an animated 45-minute rules-of-the-road program that has the advantage of being fail-proof. A narrator leads you through several segments of instruction, each of which is followed by a quiz. If you get an answer wrong, you can guess again until you get it right.

But I still heard from a lot of readers who, like me, struggled to figure out how to access the program.

And from a ton of readers with decades of clean driving records who studied hard, fretted for days and still flunked the traditional knowledge tests, thanks to ridiculous questions they insisted had no bearing on their ability behind the wheel.

They were not wrong.

One of the most mocked questions was about the fine for abandoning an animal on the side of the road, as if that’s a common occurrence for anyone, let alone drivers 70 and older.

And then there were 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, but is jail out of the question for whomever came up with that question?

“To identify hazards, you should scan the road how many seconds in front of your vehicle?”

Are they kidding?

No, they were not, but in a sign of progress, a few months ago the DMV actually began dumping some of the goofier questions readers complained about.

Even though most drivers 70 and older are now off the hook for the tests, they’re still going to have to go into a DMV office for an eye exam and a photo.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

So now that it’s a new day in California for older drivers, what are you supposed to do if you already got a license renewal notice in the mail, or if you get one in the coming days and weeks?

You can ignore the test-taking instructions because you’re off the hook. You’re still going to have to go into a DMV office for an eye exam and a photo, but the DMV is considering the possibility of — someday — accepting clearance from an eye doctor and coming up with a remote option for the photo.

There are, however, some caveats with the new rules.

If you’re a first-time driver, or moved recently to California, or have a poor driving record, sorry, but you’re still going to have to take a knowledge test or eLearning course regardless of your age.

One last point about testing:

Since I began writing about the DMV nearly two years ago, I’ve heard from readers who thought the requirement of a test for drivers older than 70 was a case of age discrimination. But I never entirely agreed.

Sure, bad drivers come in all ages. But for most of us, gradual visual impairment is inevitable, reaction time slows, and night driving becomes more of a challenge. As I’ve said before, it’s worth having a discussion about whether there should be an actual behind-the-wheel driving test after a certain age, which would be a lot more useful than a knowledge test.

Do you agree? And if so, what age would that be?

If you’d like to weigh in, you know where to find me.

steve.lopez@latimes.com