Instead of driving nearly an hour to her closest emissions testing site in suburban Bedford Park, South Deering resident Carmina Weems drove just 10 minutes to get her car tested.
She arrived at a mobile testing van in the parking lot of a South Side DMV and left in under five minutes.
“That was quick,” Weems, 51, said Wednesday.
Chicago went almost a decade without a vehicle emissions test site in its borders. But that’s changing.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is trying out mobile vehicle emissions tests from a van at the Chicago South DMV at 9901 S. King Drive through Sept. 12.
If demand is high enough, the DMV location may become the site of a permanent self-service emissions testing kiosk in the near future, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said.
The state now has two permanent self-service vehicle emissions kiosks in Chicago: one in Dunning, at 6959 W. Forest Preserve Drive, and another in Little Village, at 2560 W. Cermak Road, that opened in June.
In 2016, the Illinois EPA shuttered its emissions testing system sites in Bucktown and Dunning, as well as other nearby suburban facilities, leaving no testing center within city limits.
Philip Millar, acting manager for the vehicle inspection maintenance division at the state EPA, said since 2016, there has been a lot of negative feedback aobut not having testing sites in the city. Since March, the Illinois EPA has been running two mobile emissions testing vans that pop up in various areas in Chicago.
“We want to provide as much convenience to the motoring public as possible,” Millar said.
The mobile test site also saved traveling time for Eugene Gayden, of the Back of the Yards neighborhood. He usually gets his emissions test in south suburban Markham. This one saves him time and money, he said.
“I’ll start coming here because the process is a lot faster,” Gayden, 34, said. “So I’ll stop going to the ones in the suburbs.”
Drivers who pass their emissions test can buy a vehicle registration sticker at the DMV without an additional $9.50 fee usually charged by outside vendors.
Giannoulias said he hopes to save time and money for drivers looking to get their emissions test in the city.
“Our goal is to eventually have kiosks at our larger facilities” in the Chicago area, he said.
Residents can get tests at the site, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except for Labor Day.