I don't know if this is unique to NYC or something, but the last time I had to go to the DMV, I scheduled my appointment online ahead of time, walked in 5 minutes before the scheduled appointment, renewed my license, and walked out in about 20 minutes total.
Their site was a little ugly, the clerk who assisted me was a touch curt, but overall the worst part of it was my apprehension about going to the DMV.
I know my situation was simple, but I thought that was the big objection to the DMV: simple things are hard. The whole thing was pretty easy.
A week ago I moved and had to register my car in California. I spent, all told, twelve hours waiting in line. I could have gotten an appointment, to be sure...in two weeks.
For something like a DMV, it is important that a live human being personally verify individuals and documents in-person. This is inefficient by design, but quite necessary.
Automation of things such as this with current technology makes something as important as vehicle licensing and government-issued identification (along with everything that entails) a very risky and dangerous thing indeed.
Okay, so going to the DMV is boring and even infuriating. But, for now, we must have human beings asking all of the questions, administering all of the tests, looking at every person in the face, double and triple-checking things and so on.
Yet in other countries similar processes are no where near as painful, so the claim that "having human beings involved necessarily makes things painfully in efficient" is not very plausible.
For reasons I don't understand American government systems tend to be very difficult and painful to deal with. This not unique to the US, but in the developed world most other nations have seen improvements since the '70's. The US, not so much.
Getting a driver's license or health card in Canada used to be pretty painful. Today it's very streamlined. You still have to deal with people face-to-face, but the process has been designed to be quick and efficient.
I'm in the UK, and "going to the DMV" is one of those US rituals I don't understand. We have one licensing office and interact with it entirely by post or Internet. Photo authentication can be done off the passport photo system.
