Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, December 12, 1994                   TAG: 9412120076
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: & NOW THIS                                 LENGTH: Medium

& NOW THIS

The written test for new drivers is a thing of the past at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Roanoke.

A touch-screen TV has replaced paper and pencil for test takers seeking a driver's license.

Applicants see random questions illustrated by on-screen photographs, and touch the screen to select an answer.

If the choice is wrong, the computer records the miss but tells the customer the correct answer. The test ends as soon as a passing or failing level is reached.

High-tech still hasn't replaced the other application forms where you give your name, address and life history.

Giving credit where it's due

The city of Roanoke knows a good thing when it sees it. And sometimes when the city sees a good thing, it claims it.

The city unveiled its first Festival of Lights Dec. 3 with two items on the entertainment roster: a Christmas parade and the illumination of downtown buildings.

However, the white lights strung along the outside of downtown businesses have nothing to do with the city, much less the Festival of Lights, said Matt Kennell, executive director of Downtown Roanoke Inc.

The lights are courtesy of the perimeter program, an initiative that Downtown Roanoke Inc. has sponsored and organized for four years, Kennell said. Nineteen buildings, including three city facilities, are participating this year.

"We were pleased to see the publicity about the parade and the festival, because obviously we want to draw people downtown," Kennell said, "but it is our staff that does all the work" associated with organizing the lighting displays.

When city special events coordinator Laban Johnson was asked about this, he acknowledged that Downtown Roanoke Inc. has lit up downtown for years. Nonetheless, the effort was included in this year's festival.

"That and the parade," he said. "Those were the plans for this year's Festival of Lights."