But not everybody will be able to let their fingers do the waiting.

A new telephone appointment program will let 16-year-olds schedule a time to take their driver's test, or recent transplants make an appointment to transfer an out-of-state license, at four of metro Atlanta's most crowded facilities.

Drivers needing renewals or to replace a lost license still will have to snake their way through lines that wrap for hours around some offices.

"This is not going to fix it, it's not going to solve it, by any stretch of the imagination," said Tim Burgess, commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicle Safety. "But if we could get these people in on an appointment basis, it would help us make some kind of dent."

Almost 90 road tests a day can be scheduled at the licensing posts in Lawrenceville and DeKalb County.

About 168 out-of-state license transfers can be processed each day via appointment at the Sandy Springs licensing post and at the Marietta office.

Scheduling begins Monday for appointments for Thursday and later.

State officials promise to have an Internet and mail-order renewal system in place statewide by next summer. Until then, if the pilot program works smoothly, it could be expanded by year's end. Officials also are encouraging renewals at 24 area Kroger locations.

None of the appointments would have helped Wesley Brown of Duluth, who spent three trips and 12 hours of waiting to get a replacement for a license he says was lost by a police officer. Only intervention by the governor's office helped him avoid the wait Friday.

"It's a Band-Aid, and it's a poor one," Brown said of the appointment process. "They need to improve the procedures and utilize their people better."

Initially, Burgess and Gov. Roy Barnes proposed allowing license renewals via appointment, with residents required to show up in person to schedule. Their decision Friday to instead address tests and transfers that consume more time makes sense to Carl Vosberg of Cobb County, who waited only 20 minutes for his renewal Friday.

"If you can get in and get out in 20 to 30 minutes, there's no need for an appointment," he said.

Others, though, said the sparse number of locations will mean many people may decide to stick it out in line rather than drive one or two counties away for an appointment.

"That's still kind of ridiculous," said Peter Jackson of Marietta, as he waited to take a motorcycle test. "With traffic and time, that's still quite a ways to go."

Even those who opt for an appointment still will face some waits.

Only a handful of operators are available to man the phones, so callers may have to hold 10 to 15 minutes to schedule their appointment. Other problems - rainstorms that throw the driver's testing schedule off track, people late to their appointment or paperwork problems - may cause delays.

"We want to ensure if you get an appointment, you don't have to wait more than 30 minutes, even if there is a backup," Burgess said.

Appointments may be scheduled as much as a month in advance, but how difficult it will be to get prime weekend or lunch-hour slots is unclear.

But unlike now, where many people wait in line only to have the licensing office close before their turn at the counter, all appointments will be handled on the day they're scheduled, officials promised.

For Laura Wilt, who made several trips to the Marietta office this week in search of a short line, the new developments provide the slightest glimmer of optimism. "Something is better than nothing," she said.