Californians Celebrate Shorter DMV Wait Times During Holidays
DALY CITY (KPIX 5) -- The Department of Motor Vehicles may be one of the last places you want to spend a holiday, but many Californians are spending parts of the holiday week celebrating shorter wait times.
2020 is just around the corner and with it comes a late fall requirement to obtain a California REAL ID.
The federal government will start requiring Californians to have the new identification cards in order to board flights starting Oct. 1, 2020.
The DMV added extended hours at offices statewide this fall to lessen the wait times and as part of an effort to encourage people to avoid waiting until the last minute to get their REAL ID.
"I'm cheering! I was just in there cheering," Orlando Tolbert said leaving the DMV in San Francisco Tuesday morning.
"I got in there 10 minutes to 11:00 (a.m.) and got out, it's 11:15 (a.m.), I cannot believe that," Tolbert said.
"It was easy, it took less than an hour, very straightforward and a lot of hard working people in there," Kimberly Tanner said.
Darlene Yee and her daughter Ellis Lee got an early Christmas gift Tuesday when Ellis passed her driver's test.
"The benefit is there are less people driving around so strategically, it worked out," Yee said.
The average wait time is usually three hours or longer, but on Tuesday most reported they were in and out within the hour.
Due to the history of long lines at California DMV location,s people have paid companies to wait in line for them, but a new law taking effect in January makes that activity illegal.
