Why does it take so long to get a Texas driver’s license?

They started to line up around 3 a.m., illuminated by street lights and cell phones outside the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Fort Worth Mega Center, near the intersection of Eastchase Parkway and Brentwood Stair Road. Facing 40-degree weather on this October morning, some huddled under blankets while others layered themselves in puffy coats. A new resident with an expiring out of state license, a lifelong Texan trying to get an ID for travel, and a father trying to get his daughter her first license had waited for hours in a darkened parking lot for a chance to get a coveted same-day appointment. The alternative? A two-month wait for a scheduled appointment as DPS works through a flood of new residents and a backlog of lapsed licenses related to the pandemic. DPS hopes to solve the problem by moving more services online.

State Sen. Kelly Hancock, a North Richland Hills Republican who serves on the senate Transportation Committee, said in statement that the agency is moving in the right direction and pledged his support toward helping the agency improve in the upcoming legislation session. “It’s no surprise Texas’ record-breaking job creation and booming economy mean high-growth regions like North Texas have busy Driver License offices,” he wrote. However, state Rep. Ramon Romero, a Democrat from Fort Worth, argued the problems are a result of priorities rather than resources. “How many Mega Centers could we have opened up with those billions of dollars we spent on the border?” he asked, referring to Gov. Greg Abbott’s $2 billion border security initiative. DPS opened its first Mega Centers in 2012 in an effort to increase capacity and shorten wait times. However, data obtained by the Star-Telegram in 2019 showed it took an average of 2 1/2 hours to get a license for the first time at the Fort Worth Mega Center and nearly 1 1/2 hours at the Fort Worth South location.