The DMV Is Good Actually
Unsurprisingly, I enjoyed this piece by Tressie McMillan Cottom: People Hate on the D.M.V. But It’s Great.
The D.M.V. is a beacon of equality in this country. Celebrate the place where you can watch a celebrity fill out the same forms that you do. We should revel in the fact that there is no express lane for beautiful, rich people to renew their licenses. When you sit in those hard chairs waiting for your number to appear on a screen, you should be delighted that no one else is sitting in a cushier chair. Look around that room and see your fellow Americans, the huddled masses, gathered at the feet of a woman asking for the paperwork to be a law-abiding citizen.
She also adds that “The D.M.V. is one of the few places where privileged people — especially privileged white people — will ever encounter a woman of color with unquestionable authority.”
Long-time readers of the site know what I’m gonna reference next: Tom Junod’s 2012 piece in Esquire about lines at amusement parks and the advent of “Flash Passes” that help you skip the line:
It sounds like an innovative answer to the problem that everybody faces at an amusement park, and one perfectly in keeping with the approaches currently in place at airports and even on some crowded American highways — perfectly in keeping with the two-tiering of America. You can pay for one level of access, or you can pay for another. If you have the means, you can even pay for freedom. There’s only one problem: Cutting the line is cheating, and everyone knows it. Children know it most acutely, know it in their bones, and so when they’ve been waiting on a line for a half-hour and a family sporting yellow plastic Flash Passes on their wrists walks up and steps in front of them, they can’t help asking why that family has been permitted the privilege of perpetrating what looks like an obvious injustice. And then you have to explain not just that they paid for it but that you haven’t paid enough — that the $100 or so that you’ve ponied up was just enough to teach your children that they are second- or third-class citizens.
There’s no Flash Pass at the DMV. See also Our Unpleasant Privatized Reality.
Discussion 8 comments
“…everybody has to wait her turn. It is inconvenient, but everyone is equally inconvenienced.”
I am all for some levelling and equality. It’s humbling, a blunting of ego.
But, on the premise that going to the DMV is a good thing… I renewed my driving licence in 10 minutes sitting in a comfy chair at home. Thank $deity for gov.uk.
Ever since the DMV went to the take a ticket for a specific need I've been a fan.
Love the idea, but NY-bias is real. They link to a study that says NJ found out privatizing it doesn't work, but out here in New Mexico, MVD Express is realllllllllly leading the pack in people who are paying to skip the line.
Seconding this because I had the same reaction when reading the article; MVD Express privatizing the DMV has worked very well in New Mexico. That said, I appreciate the sentiments of the original article.
The author of the piece does not live in New York. Also, if I am reading this right, New Mexico did not privatize the entire DMV, they are allowing a private company to offer DMV services for an added fee — a middleman. It will be interesting to see what the long-term result of that is.
I just re-read this one the other day. "Rich kids should go to public schools. The mayor should ride the subway to work. When wealthy people get sick, they should be sent to public hospitals… The fact that people want to buy their way out of these experiences points to the reason why they shouldn’t be able to."
https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/everyone-into-the-grinder
The measure of a well-run public transit system is whether the affluent use it.
This reminded me that I wrote a Yelp review of the Brooklyn DMV many years ago:
If you're looking for a real New York experience, Brooklyn's hottest spot is the DMV. Get there early, though, because the line wraps around the block an hour before they open - and 10 hours later the joint will still be packed. This place has everything: unattended children, confused foreigners, inaccurate automated announcements, The Elderly. If your paperwork is in order and you've been there longer than 6 hours, you might get awarded a 27b/6 - it's that form that summons Robert DeNiro to pop out of the duct work and rescue you.
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