I don't think it is the DMV to blame. It is hard to truly judge a person from a short written exam and a few minutes in an in-car exam.
They could do better, for example having certain criteria for automatic retesting including a certain number of traffic citations, or age. Perhaps even give licenses at 16 and retest at 20, and also retest every 5 years after age 70.
And the retest should be 10x as hard as the initial test.
I had an annoying incident a couple of days ago.
T-interchange that I had to cross from the top of the T.
100% of the traffic turns, and the turning traffic and crosswalk are given a signal at the same time.
Anyway, I started crossing when given a crosswalk signal.
Car coming constant speed. I yelled, and the car slowed enough to not hit me.
Ok, mistakes happen, and nobody was hit.
The second vehicle had stopped, and didn't enter the interchange until I had cleared the road (which is what the first one legally should have done).
About 3 more cars back, the driver yelled at me for crossing on a RED???
It wasn't the car that just about hit me that bothered me... mistakes happen. Rather the driver that thought it was his place to announce that a person in a crosswalk with a "walk" crossing light would be to blame if they got hit.
Mistakes happen, and hopefully can be recovered from without serious injury. Many ways to minimize accidents, but...
The HOTHEADS (cyclists and drivers) are part of the problem. And, that isn't as much of a DMV problem, as perhaps an issue with the individuals, or their upbringing (very hard to legislate).
But, another issue is just basic infrastructure design.
One should never give a green turn only light at the same time that a button activated crosswalk signal is on.
Some areas have improved the issue by adding a delay... just about enough time for a pedestrian to get into the middle of the lane before the cars are given a green.
Another option would be to NOT give a green. But, rather activate a flashing yellow for the entire duration of the crosswalk signal (in this case in a dedicated turn lane).
One of the problems with a flashing yellow, of course, is that it is hard to differentiate from a solid yellow, but perhaps end a flashing yellow with a yellow/red flash, or yellow/red solid.