自動車登録手続きの経験

This morning, I went to the DMV to pay the car registration renewal fee because I misplaced my mail-in notice. I had an appointment, of course! For years, the slow moving queues at the DMV office had been the ultimate example of gross government buearacratic inefficiency. If someone said they have to go to the DMV, you will pretty much assume that person is not coming to work that day. But guess what? I thought I will never say this but I actually enjoyed my very short visit there this morning!

There were 2 queues at the entrance of the office, one is for people with "appointment only", the other is "without appointment" and the line for the appointment only was actually longer! So the officier at the "without appointment" queue waved at those who were standing at the "appointment only" line to go over. Everyone hesitated worrying that they might got queue up in the long waiting no-appointment queue. The officier waved again and still nobody moved. So I decided to take my chances. It turned out she can process both and gave me a ticket - "A019". Then I noticed the office have many monitors mounted at every 2 windows announcing what number will be served at which window. The monitor listed 8 numbers along with the window number:
F020 6 G011 19
A015 20 B004 8
.....etc.

It's very neat! All the windows are now capable of handling all types of request and there is no one super long line with just a few windows open. Everyone is actually sitting down leisurely waiting their turn and the whole place have this cozy dim light ambience instead of the harsh florescent white light. I was like, "Wow! Is this the DMV I used to come a few years ago? This is pretty amazing! Did someone come in and customized the whole process? It can't go any smoother than this." And I was right. I was at the DMV for less than 5 minutes! I showed my insurance document, wrote a check, got the registration paper, receipt and sticker and I was on my way! Really pretty amazing!