"updating your registration isn't really like turning into a cockroach"

It can resemble The Trial, however.

That's possibly a sign that fairly few people have read Kafka (updating your registration isn't really like turning into a cockroach)

Ahem. Someone needs to go and pick up a copy of "The Trial" before making a blanket statement about how many people read so-and-so... :-P

I believe James Wilson discussed exactly this issue in Bureaucracy. FWIW, things have improved in many localities over the last 10-20 years - take-a-number systems with plentiful seating instead of long lines, appropriate use of technology, etc - but I imagine it's a bit scattershot.

What the above commenters said. "The Trial", I think, pretty much encapsulated what people are thinking about the DMV

Outside DC, the mayor has nothing to do with it: car registration is everywhere else a function of the state. And really, the DMV just isn't that painful as bureaucratic pain exercises go. In Minnesota, I found the DMV positively pleasant, and as long as you remember to make an appointment online, even California isn't too bad these days.

I am no theorist of government behavior, but I assume the reason bureacracy in general sucks is that no national or state election is won by providing good public services. City elections, on the other hand, probably are.

Illinois' version of DMV is awesome.

It's been years since I waited in a significant line. My then-pregnant wife was noticed when she went renew her license and moved through the entire process (including a bathroom break) faster than you can imagine.

There's no reason government can't work.

someone already covered my question - isn't the DMV a state office not a city one?

also, i've had good experiences w/ the DMV - in small towns. and well, not exactly horrific, but, fairly difficult experiences - in NYC. where it is well known that if you need to update your driver's license, plan on spending an entire DAY at the DMV. 8 hours there, compared to, oh about 15-20 minutes where i live now (which can best be described as "mumford").

what could the governor of NY do about that? i honestly don't know.

Mayors and governors get elected for short terms, while bureaucrats that are the heads of these things are basically forever, until they retire and get a tremendous pension for the rest of their lives. There is almost no incentive to make anything easier for the public, but rather everything is geared to make lots of work. This way you build up a big and important bureaucracy that demands more resources, commands more power, and becomes insulated from budget cuts--we can't cut DMV employees or everyone will have to wait in line all day!(because the endless paperwork takes about 50 times longer than it should). This is something that 99% of should be done online, but that would be too efficient.

I'm with Scott K -- a copy of The Castle might do you well. I demand a blogger ethics panel.

Actually the political upshot is that the "gummint sucks" feelings the GOP feeds on arise, in part, from negative experiences at the DMV.

There is no reason why updating a drivers' license should take a full day. In fact, in most states they've managed to make things flow quicker as if by magic. But somehow, as trishka beats me to the punch in pointing out, the DMV in NYC still is teh suck.

And the catch-22s still exist. Try being a furriner getting a first time license: you need insurance to get licensed and/or registered. But you need a license and/or registration to get insurance.

Actually, this seems to be more of a Pythonesque bureaucracy thing than a Kafka-esque one. 'Murkins as well as furriners from such English-influenced places like India seem to have no problem intuitively understanding how to navigate the SNAFUs of the DMV process, but someone from Germany or France ...

Meanwhile, my wife is about to have her license suspended because she finally got her father to get his own car insurance. But the cancelation of said car insurance triggered some gecko-brained lizard at her insurance company (which shall remain nameless) to notify the NY DMV that my wife canceled her insurance on her father's car which caused the DMV to decide that she no longer was insured and hence should have her license suspended!

Iowa DMV is great, and Massachusetts DMV is pretty good, too. No inspections in Iowa (at least not for a 1992 camry) and in Mass you've got a week after registering to get your sticker.

I have actually had pretty good experiences with DMVs in four US states - Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.

If libertarians want a scary synechdoche for government, they should use TSA. But I guess less people fly than drive.

DL renewal in Texas is easy and you can do it online. Takes 5 whole minutes. License tags done on the county level and you can do this online too. Paying a Dallas city parking or traffic ticket- you are in line all day. So I guess it depends on the entity.

In Maryland it's the Motor Vehicle Admin. (MVA). Presumably for the same contrarian reasons license plates are called "tags"

Anyway I had to return my "tags" to the MVA yesterday and waited 90 MINUTES for some dude to toss them into some kind of "tag" disposal thingy and print me out a receipt all of 20 seconds. Of course judging by the rate the line for his station was moving, he apparently needed about 10 min to recover from these exertions.

Ezra, just be glad you didn't liver here ten-fifteen-twenty years ago. When the DMV was actually a real mess! Believe me, it's vastly improved.

Maryland is nice because you can register your car and get your license plates/tags by mail.

Also, Ezra: you're suppose to get your car inspected before the previous inpsection expires. Makes your life a lot easier.

The Massachusetts RMV is great (offices at the mall!) and, quite honestly, credit for that has to go to the administrators appointed by the past 14 years of Republican governors who reformed it.

Well, here in sunny Oregon (pronounced ory-gun), we have a DMV and DEQ (not the Dairy Queen, but environmental quality). You can't renew your car registration without a DEQ checkup - which is at a different facility. Oh, and some DMV offices don't offer full service, so be sure you make sure what you need is offered.

But those problems could be cured, but OR folks don't want to pay taxes (for anything). No sales tax! Hurrah! Low income tax. Meh!
Services? Sucky.

Federalism (like War): 'what is it good for?'

FWIW, part of the problem in NYC with the DMV is not the way the DMV works or doesn't work when you get there but that fact that, e.g., in Queens (which is not like Manhattan where you can get away with not having a car) with > 2,000,000 people there are only 3 frickin' DMV locations!

Dude, you own a car? I thought you were progressive, Ezra!

in NYC. where it is well known that if you need to update your driver's license, plan on spending an entire DAY at the DMV.

I managed to renew my licence at the DMV in Lower Manhattan in a few minutes. Maybe elsewhere in the city it is bad, but I thought it was pretty efficient actually.

And dealing with them was much easier than dealing with, say, any insurance company I've ever had to interact with. Or with the cable company, most landlords etc etc. If we were really opposed to oppressive bureaucracy we'd eliminate a bunch of private companies before we got to the DMV.

DMVs are really a perfect example of why you shouldn't let modern republicans near government. In states with reasonable progressive and responsive (and reasonably funded) governments the DMV process has become as pleasant as any other line you have to wait in. Certainly more pleasant than talking to a health insurance company.

And trishka, what happened to the DMV Express on West 34 and other locations? It's been a while, but each of the times I went there it was mayb 20-25 minutes including walking from the subway.

In support of the above comments -- most of the DMV locations I've visited have been pretty nice: upstate NY, about ten different places in Jersey (rural and urban both), Virginia, Michigan, California, and Arizona.

North Carolina has a bizarre system similar to what I understand Ezra to be describing, and it's a bit of a pain, although easily mitigatable by simply visiting rural offices instead of urban ones.

But yes, NYC's DMV sux. And the Queens office in Flushing in particular was a nightmare (mid-90's to early-00's). It was one of the relatively few things about Queens that I hated with a passion. Eventually I just took the subway downtown to the Manhattan office to do as much of the DMV nonsense as possible there, because at least the Manhattan office wasn't a swirling mass of apathy and chaos.

also, i've had good experiences w/ the DMV - in small towns. and well, not exactly horrific, but, fairly difficult experiences - in NYC. where it is well known that if you need to update your driver's license, plan on spending an entire DAY at the DMV. 8 hours there, compared to, oh about 15-20 minutes where i live now (which can best be described as "mumford").

Actually, In recent years I've had good experiences at the Manhattan DMV. They revamped the offices a few years back so that you can sit on benches and wait for your number to be called rather than having to wait in line. when i had to get a new license a few years back (switching from MA back to NY), I told everyone at work that I'd probably not get in until noon expecting it to be a pain in the ass. I got to the DMV when it opened, and not only was I not late for work, but I was probably 1/2 hour early compared to when I normally got in. I'm always pleasantly surprised (possibly because my expectations are so low), but since I can bring a book and sit, I really don't even mind waiting.

It is worth noting that the hassle here is really Ezra's fault, not the DMV's.

I've renewed my registration and inspection in DC without ever having to get a temporary registration - or even visit the DMV, for that matter. I had to look on the DC DMV website just to find out what Ezra is talking about.

It appears that you only have to get the 5 day temporary registration if you have let both you registration and inspection already expire. If you are in that situation, it is really your own fault. The DMV even sends notices by mail with generous leads to help you avoid that situation.

I see that everyone else has already pointed out that that use of the term Kafkaesque stems from The Trial and The Castle.

Agreeing with Hobbes, the situation in Illinois is pretty good, and it speaks directly to Ezra's point about political incentives and rewards. Here the Secretary of State controls the DMV, and S of S is often considered a stepping stone to the Governor's mansion. So things started to get a lot better when they realized the political value of giving the voters a pleasant experience coupled with prominently placed photos of their smiling mugs.

Here in the East Bay (CA), the DMV has improved by several 100% (is that possible) over the bad old days. It's about as well run as any service office these days, with appointments, lots of help to walk-in folks, waiting on line to speed things up, and quite good customer service. It used to be a total nighmare.

Last week, I had a remarkably good experience with the California DMV. Since it had been a long time since my last in-person renewal (10 years), I expected a trip to the DMV to take the test. But for some reason (budget constraints? my driving record?), they let me renew by mail or internet again. So I brought the notice to my computer, pulled out a credit card, and within 5 minutes had renewed my license.

I think EDS pretty much has the market cornered on DMV modernizations. Though this, "He just got the DMV to adopt e-mail..." is still pretty ahead of the curve for public services. It's sad/terrifying how many multibillion dollar industries, public and private, still run off AS/400 systems.

And yeah dude, read The Trial already.

"I have actually had pretty good experiences with DMVs in four US states - Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York."

Well, I lived in Pennsylvania, and I think the DMV there sucks. It makes no sense to require registration before a car can be inspected. So you pay $150 to register the car, take it in for inspection, are told the car needs $2000 in repairs, decide to junk the car, but are still out the $150 for registration.

In Missouri, you inspect, then register. It's much more logical.

What is this DMV of which you speak?

In Maine, my (pop. 7500) town hall does everything, including handing out new plates, that Augusta doesn't do on line, like renewals.

I go in once every ten years to get a new picture on my license.

Apart from that, only been in the building to deliver a child to the inspector for the road test. Can't do that on-line yet...

New Jersey has actually had a quiet but (anecdotally) successful reform dating back to the "Fix DMV" act of 2003, which included a rebranding (it's the MVC -- Motor Vehicle Commission -- now) and general service improvements all around. Somehow, though, I doubt that it'll ever be what the McGreevey administration is remembered for.

I do miss the old (laminated) driver's licenses, though. You'd travel out of state and the locals wouldn't believe it was real.

Oh and my good New York experience was at the downtown Brooklyn one. Mind you, I felt like I deserved a law degree after figuring out what I needed to bring, but I brought the right documentation and so it worked.

I'm with Hobbes so I'll give a shout out for the PA DMV - or whatever it's called. I do almost everything online or by mail. I don't have trouble renewing my registration or my emissions. I love visiting the office every four years to get my photo taken for my license since I always deal with pleasant, professional people.

In Michigan, they call it the Secretary of State instead of the DMV. It improved hugely when the Candice Miller (R) took over from Richard Austin (D). It was the bright spot in the Republican administrations here in the 1990s. I think Richard Austin must have been some kind of patronage hack, who just didn't bother.

And to follow up on zilla's comment, after streamlining the SoS office in Michigan by adding online options and generally making it no more of a hassle than going to the bank, Miller won her congressional district handily and is usually considered a serious contender for a Senate seat.

I worked for a state office for awhile and got a little taste of what it must be like to work at a DMV. Unlike a private business where you can just write off a certain segment of potential customers that are too difficult to deal with, you have to be there for everybody. One of my nightmare jobs is being the guy that has to give the driving test to the guy that is coming back to give it a fifth try.

yes, it occurred to me after i posted that since i haven't actually lived in NYC in over 15 years, the situation there might be better now. cuz, you know, things do change. even bureaucracies.

1. The DMV jobs are too secure. People stay too long and at low levels because the people above them stay too long. Thus no cheery teens. No ambitious hard workers looking to move up.
2. The compensation is too high. People stay too long at low level.
3. Civil service hiring does not select for efficiency or personality but for God knows what.
4. The DMV gets applicants who want an easy secure job.
5. Governments have 2 goals in the DMV one is to get people registered but the other is to provide jobs to get votes. If one goal is to provide jobs to get votes ideas to reduce the time spent with each customer get killed.

Yes, more worker turnover and lower salaries. That always improves service!

Ohio SUCKS!

I almost went back at night to put a sign on the glass door that said, "When Obama takes office, SMART is gonna be in again, and you might just have to ditch that PROUD TO BE STUPID attitude!

As long as it's not comparing the DMV to The Penal Colony, I think we're going to be alright.

I would argue that there is "no more culturally recognized irritant" than the DMV precisely because "there is no point of more regular contact between [ED: government] bureaucracy and individuals." Americans don't like bureaucracy, regardless. Consider the scorn with which people in many organizations (at least the ones I've worked for) regard their HR departments. We just want things to magically happen (licenses/registration or employment paperwork), so we're primed for bad experiences when we go to the DMV. Even short visits are annoying because it's the DMV. If we had some perspective, we might realize that an hour or two (or even a full day) is not that big of a price to pay for the privilege of driving.

You want to know what's really Kafkaesque? Not the fucking DMV, which everyone uses.

It's the fucking USCIS immigration bureaucracy, which is basically used by people who don't vote.

ROTF @ Andrew!

My contribution to the DMV discussion is that I live in the red state of Tennessee, and we can renew driver's licenses online. Vehicle registration is not handled by the state, rather, it is handled by the county clerk. We do have a requirement to get an emission test, but once you do that, you can do the rest online. No need to actually go to these locations... even if you do, as I had to in order to register my newly purchased electric motorcycle, it was a fairly painless process-- it took a while, but it was mostly because the people working in the office had to figure out exactly how to register my motorcycle because while there was a box to check for electric vehicles, the motorcycle was manufactured by a small company in California and thus didn't have a formal code in their database...

The Trial was great, but The Castle -- specifically an edition that includes Kafka's additional storylines -- was fantastic.

What's better than a novel about a seemingly endless maze than an *unfinished* novel about a seemingly endless maze complete with many possible real dead ends, any of which may be the one Kafka intended?

I renewed my license at the License Express on 34th Street in Manhattan. In and out in 20 minutes including a new picture.

One reason the DMV sucks in some places is that most people only interact with it once a year. It may be an intensely frustrating experience, but six months down the road it's not going to be a pressing issue in your life.

Contrast that with trash pickup, snow removal, school quality, and so on. When people do a mental calculus of "What should I invest my time complaining about\fixing?", I think issues that they have to deal with on a more frequent basis get priority.

I went through exactly what Ezra describes this past Saturday--I had to go to the Georgetown DMV to get my 5-day temporary registration, then go wait to get my car inspected, and then (since I was the last car through and they'd close the counter) had to go to yet ANOTHER DMV service center by Nationals Park to get my full 2-year registration.

In all, it was a 2 1/2 hour ordeal spread out over three service centers. (That includes transit across town.)

For all that inconvenience, it's still an unspeakably massive improvement over the bad days of the recent past, when even the simplest transactions were a guaranteed two hours out of one's day.

My only complaint was that I got my renewal notice two weeks before my registration was set to expire, so online renewal wasn't an option, as it's supposed to take four weeks to process in DC.

I'd like to see DMV critics quantify their grievance a little more. I don't buy the premise that the DMV is particularly inefficient or cumbersome. I lost my license recently and had to apply for a new one. (New York City area.) I went to the DMV, had to wait for about 45 minutes -- during which time I was free to leave the premises and visit a store -- returned and left with my temporary license. I think anyone who can turn that into some massive dysfunction has no idea what cumbersome bureaucracy looks like. Basically, until critics of the DMV can marshal a little evidence that millions of man-hours are lost each year etc., I am disinclined to believe them.

I think Richard Austin must have been some kind of patronage hack, who just didn't bother.

He was okay, back in the day. The problem was, he served 1971-1994, and was ill with Alzheimer's by the time he left office at age 81.

I've dealt with the DMV in Connecticut and the MVC in New Jersey, and both have generally been surprisingly pleasant. I had to renew my CT license while I lived there, and there was a renewal center at the local mall that had me in and out, including a new picture, in about 10 minutes.

New Jersey's MVC has a "6 points of identification" system that can be a bit irritating sometimes, but if you've got all your ducks in a row, things generally go pretty quickly. There are some IDs that count as "primary," and others that count as "secondary." A passport (current or expired) or an expired license or a birth certificate counts as primary and gives you 3 points, a bank statement is secondary and counts as 1 point, etc. You need at least one primary document and a total of 6 points to get a license. My only irritation came the day after I sent out my birth certificate with my passport application. Long story short, my friend got drunk and lost my wallet, and I needed a new license. MVC wouldn't accept my US Army civilian ID as a primary document, so I had to send away to California for a birth certificate, but I had to use my mom's credit card, since all of mine were canceled, since my wallet was lost.

But I'm guessing that was an extreme circumstance. All of the others have been pretty benign.

In CT we mailed in an auto renewal which was (rightly) rejected because we hadn't paid our town property tax (oops).

Later, we paid the tax, and without warning the renewed reg popped up in the mailbox!

Not sure when they started doing that--can't have been too recent. It feels good that they're able to get the systems to interface with each other.

I'd like to see DMV critics quantify their grievance a little more.

You have to wait in a long line, only to find out that you got something wrong, forcing you to start all over again. Signing a lease on an apartment, getting a passport, signing up for cable tv, or even getting a PO Box at the post office isn't as cumbersome in comparison. That's the issue everyone has.

The Mass Registry of Motor Vehicles used to be awful because all the records were on index cards in Boston. You would go to the Registry and give them your information. They would walk over to the teletype machine, and type a request for Boston to pull your record and teleype it back to them. Meanwhile you would wait. When Boston finally teletyped your record to the local office, you would get called back up to the window. Sometimes you would have to wait for a response from Boston after they teletyped your new information to Boston.

This lasted at least until the mid 80s.

And they guys who gave driving tests were armed and in a special Registry uniform.

I'm not joking.

@jeff: When I renewed my DC registration online, I was given the ability to print out a temporary registration "receipt" to show that I had renewed, which I could display in my window until the new registration sticker arrived. Maybe I'm just exceptionally lucky, but I've had zero problems with the DC DMV or inspection process. I haven't had to visit the DMV office since I first registered my car and got my DC license, and event that was relatively painless compared to Virginia.

For those who missed the news last week, both chambers are moving ahead with plans to bring Maryland into compliance with the federal Real ID law but with a key difference: The Senate wants to require proof of legal residence for all new licenses and renewals. The House wants to grandfather in illegal immigrants who now have licenses and create a two-tier system, so that their licenses would be labeled "not federally compliant" for the purposes of getting into federal buildings, boarding airplanes, etc. Gov. O'Malley says he'll sign either bill but prefers the House approach.
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