Our dream is for DMV to not be a nightmare

We’re not sure that it required a city audit to discover that the city Department of Customer Services’ Motor Vehicle, Licensing and Permits Division — the DMV — didn’t place a high priority on customer service.

Waiting in those long, slow-moving lines at the DMV, and complaining about it, are practically traditions on Oahu.

The recently retired head of the division, Dennis Kamimura, argued that ensuring accurate processing of transactions holds a higher priority than shorter lines, especially with new, more complex legal requirements.

Still, it’s encouraging to see the city endeavoring to provide both. There are now hotlines to learn about ID requirements, pull-number queuing and cameras so you can check out the lines.

Our own advice: Don’t go to the DMV at the end of the month. It’s crazy busy.

Best place to smoke is not in my house

Eighty-three percent of U.S. households don’t allow smoking inside their homes, nearly twice the percentage found two decades ago, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hawaii is part of this positive trend: 85 percent of households banned smoking in 2011, compared to 51 percent in 1993. Utah consistently leads the nation in this category.

Check out http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/ for the full state-by-state results.