Testimony to DC Council, Committee on Transportation and the Environment, Department of Motor Vehicles Performance Hearing

I moved to DC in 2017, and was surprised that when I did, all I needed to do to get a DC driver’s license was to fill out a form and a check. It’s possible in that brief time at the DMV that they checked my Pennsylvania driver record electronically, but they certainly didn’t do anything to make sure I knew the laws that are different here.

And then they gave me a card that was good for over 7 years. In 2024, when that first DC license finally expired, I had to do even less to renew it—I didn’t even get a new photo, much less asked if I knew anything about DC traffic law. A lot has changed in the last eight years—for example, the default speed limit when there are no signs was lowered from 25 mph to 20. DDOT and other agencies could certainly be doing more to advertise these changes¹, but we should also be doing more to check in with our drivers and ensure the people we allow to operate multi-ton machines in our environment actually know the rules for doing so.

¹ we’re also due for a conversation on those expensive, ineffective, and often offensive “street smart” ads, so perhaps we can redirect that program to reminding drivers what the laws are across the region….

I would suggest that we start by testing drivers new to the District on the laws that may be different here from other states, perhaps especially those which relate to interaction with non-drivers, such as how much space do you need to leave when passing a person on a bike, when do you need to stop when someone is trying to walk across the street, or how close to an intersection can you park your car. But over the next several years, we should also start testing current DC drivers on, especially, the laws that have changed since they got their license or last renewed it. It’s not unreasonable for people to wonder what’s the point of changing the law or how we can enforce it if we don’t do much to make sure people know what the law is.

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@online{swiderski2025,
  author = {Swiderski, J. I.},
  title = {Testimony to {DC} {Council,} {Committee} on {Transportation}
    and the {Environment,} {Department} of {Motor} {Vehicles}
    {Performance} {Hearing}},
  date = {2025-02-10},
  url = {https://jski.net/posts/2025-02-DMV_testimony.html},
  langid = {en}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Swiderski, J. I. 2025. “Testimony to DC Council, Committee on Transportation and the Environment, Department of Motor Vehicles Performance Hearing.” February 10, 2025. https://jski.net/posts/2025-02-DMV_testimony.html.