Driving during Quarantine

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Photo source: https://newsroom.aaa.com/2015/05/teen-drivers-put-everyone-risk/

Morgan Lind, FEATURES EDITOR

   For junior Hansini Koppolu, getting her drivers license during the chaos of COVID-19 is extremely difficult. Overbooked DMVs, modified drivers tests that are much different from the normal exam, teens waiting to get their driver’s licenses and permits, and constantly checking for availability throughout DMV’s across the county, make the difficulties and modifications made due to COVID-19 even more of an obstacle in getting your license. 

 

   Hansini first got her learners permit last year during her sophomore year and has had it for about a little more than a year. “I got my permit in April of 2019, so I was supposed to get my license this year around the same time” she states. In around March, she was planning on going to finally take her drivers test in order to get her highly anticipated license, however the COVID-19 pandemic hit and it has been difficult ever since. She states, “I was planning on getting [my license] and now it’s so much more difficult because all the dmv’s are either closed or backed up with tons of appointments.”

 

   Ever since COVID-19 hit, many places had to take precautions in order to keep up with the regulations needed to be upheld. Most DMV’s are doing things such as adding plexiglass dividers between the instructor and the teen, wearing gloves, masks of course, and even shortening the test to only in the parking lot where your parent is in the car with you on the phone rather than the instructor. Hanisni expresses, “Due to DMV’s being backed up and closed I still have not been able to get my license.”

 

   These changes and precautions can make things more difficult but also slow down the DMV, causing most to be overbooked and not available. Along with this, many DMV’s are lowering the amount of appointments being made on certain days to keep the number of people in the place at a low.

 

   Ever since COVID-19 struck, many different things have changed and also many more places have been delayed and slower due to the inability to quickly either make products or receive them due to the backup from COVID-19.