When I first got a look at the crowd inside the Old Saybrook branch of the Department of Motor Vehicles I thought I must have inadvertently picked a bad time, that some particular event or deadline was driving up the number of people.

There were no parking spaces out front, and inside there was standing room only. The DMV, on its own wait time calculator on its website, I later figured out, was estimating a wait time that day in Old Saybrook of close to four hours.

No, the wait number ticket-giver told me, after I waited in line almost a half-hour to get a ticket to begin the real wait, there is no good time to come anymore.

"It's been like this for months," the ticket giver said, before calling the next in line for a wait number, someone about to begin the estimated wait slog of close to four hours.

My first thoughts, as I settled in for the morning, was that this would be a great place for aspiring office holders to come and campaign. At that point, I might have promised to vote for anyone who promised to end the pain.

I know that long DMV wait times are a stock joke line.

We all know that going to the DMV is a trip into the heart of darkness of a great, insensitive bureaucracy.

And yet I was still surprised to learn that a four-hour wait, anywhere, in the year 2015, could be routine.

I was surprised enough, in fact, to put a call into the DMV, during what was left of my day, to ask why.

The DMV spokesman who gamely fielded my questions about wait times had some good news and bad news in response. I should add, too, that everyone at the Old Saybrook office was polite, professional and tending to business, not a slacker in sight.

The good news from the DMV is that they are replacing a computer system that is so old it was in place when Ronald Reagan was in office.

The new $25 million system, in development for several years, should allow people to do more online and avoid DMV branch offices all together, a DMV spokesman said. Right now, for instance, you can't renew your registration online if your taxes are overdue or your emissions allowance has expired.

In theory, with fewer people visiting DMV offices after the new system is installed, wait times will be much shorter.

The bad news is that the DMV is replacing its old computer system.

It's also bad because, while the implementation occurs, lines are expected to be worse. That implementation is expected to begin soon.

In fact, the DMV has been including warnings with renewal notices that it might be a good idea to get your DMV business done as soon as you can. Act now, in other words, and avoid even longer lines.

Those hurry-up notices are part of the reason the lines are especially long lately, the spokesman said. People are heeding the warning.

Also, there is usually a seasonal spike at DMV offices, as people get out and do things, like buy cars, in the warmer weather.

As with so many things in life, the DMV system treats people who are struggling financially much worse than people with plenty of money.

Not included among the line waiters I sat with in Old Saybrook this week, for instance, were people who buy new cars from dealers and get plates without going to the DMV. If you car shop online for fixer-uppers, though, you are more likely going to wait in line.

People who struggle to pay tax bills are also more likely than someone who doesn't, to wait in line at the DMV. Sometimes they have to go twice, once to learn they can't renew or register because taxes are due, and a second time, once they've paid the taxes.

This is a maybe another good reason why the waiters at the DMV are ripe for a good political pitch.

But the aspiring office holders better hurry.

If the DMV is right, and I'd say that's a substantial if, the lines could be a lot shorter by the time those political aspirants, maybe even Connecticut's own Ronald Reagan, come along.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct