"It's not fair to us to always have to do these things in town," said Barbara Dyer, whose son is learning to drive. "How about the other way around? Close one of the other centers and have them come here to take the test."

The Kane'ohe driver testing station is on a busy cul-de-sac that includes a library and an active city park but has few parking spaces in the vicinity. Access is down a steep incline that challenges even experienced drivers. Across the street is Rev. Benjamin Parker Elementary School, and at times students fill the sidewalks and crosswalks, presenting another challenge to people taking the driver's test.

The city took into account all of that plus the fact that its driver's service budget was cut by $50,000 last year, said Carol Costa, Department of Customer Services director. Also, the staff at the site was down from seven to four, Costa said.

When the police station closed temporarily in June for renovation, the city decided to study the possible closure of the driver's testing station, she said.

"It's a combination of public safety, the parking issue and the reduced staff over the last couple of years that has just made it impossible for us to continue to operate at this location," Costa said.

The office remains closed as the city retrofits the air-conditioning system for the whole building. The project should be done next month, Costa said.

During the closure, people switched to the Windward Mall and now about 96 percent of the license renewals and duplications take place there, she said.

In May, 206 renewals and duplications were done at Windward Mall. By August, some 2,043 transactions took place at Windward Mall, Costa said.

Costa couldn't say how many people take tests at the Kane'ohe site, but said the testers there would move to the main driver's service center at City Square on Dillingham Boulevard. Of the four employees at the police station, three went to Dillingham and one is working at Windward Mall, she said.

The closest station for Windward residents to take driver's tests would be City Square or Pearl City.

Driver education instructor Kermit Brown Jr., of Brown's Driving School, said the closure would be a big loss to the whole system, forcing people to travel farther to get licenses and increase the load on the other locations. People line up early in the morning to take the test and many are turned away, he said. The city should be adding stations, not taking them away, especially in East O'ahu, he said.

"You get people from Hawai'i Kai coming around Makapu'u just to do business at Kane'ohe rather than fight the volume at Dillingham," Brown said. "So it's putting more burden on places that are at the moment understaffed."

But Costa said, given the budget cut that precluded hiring more staff, the city can do a better job with fewer sites. Plus, she said, people often don't go to the station nearest their home to take the test. She said many people go to stations that are farther away if they think that site has an easier road test. In other cases, it's a matter of being able to get a more convenient appointment to take the test, Costa said.

Leatrice Williams, a driving instructor for 50 years, said closing the Kane'ohe office won't be a problem for her students because she likes to take them to the Dillingham station for testing. Although Williams is a Windward resident, she said she'd rather teach her students in town where they can experience real traffic.

"They go to town for other things," she said. "If the main station at Dillingham is well staffed, it's all right."