RIVERBEND JUNCTION — The Tri-County Department of Motor Vehicles unveiled a new Express Lane on Thursday, designed exclusively for customers who have already been waiting since Tuesday, in what officials called “a bold reimagining of the line.”

The lane is, by all independent measurements, exactly as long as the original lane. It is also located in the same place, and it moves at the same speed. What distinguishes it, according to the agency, is a laminated sign reading “EXPRESS” in a typeface the DMV’s press office described as “fast-looking.”

“We heard from the community, and the community said, ‘We have been here since Tuesday,’” said Delphine Okonkwo-Praskins, Deputy Assistant Director of Perceived Velocity at the Tri-County DMV. “So we asked ourselves: how do we honor that sacrifice? The answer was italics.”

Eligibility for the Express Lane is verified by a clerk who asks customers whether they have been waiting since Tuesday. Customers who answer yes are directed to the Express Lane. Customers who answer no are directed to the Express Lane’s neighbor, the Standard Lane, which is also called the Express Lane on alternate days for what the agency describes as “continuity.”

Early adopters have reported a range of experiences. Harold Vance-Ruddick, 58, who said he arrived to renew a registration shortly after the Tuesday lunch rush, moved approximately four feet in his first two hours in the new lane.

“It feels faster,” Vance-Ruddick said, after being asked three times whether it felt faster. “I don’t know why. The sign is very slanted.”

The agency confirmed that the sign’s slant was chosen after extensive consultation with Dr. Ignatius Fenwick-Obuya, Senior Fellow in Applied Motion Typography at the Institute for Things That Look Like They’re Going Somewhere. Fenwick-Obuya reportedly recommended a forward-leaning sans serif with “aggressive kerning,” along with a small lightning bolt, which was rejected on budget grounds and replaced with a smaller, cheaper lightning bolt.

“Speed is a feeling. We have simply made the feeling available.”

That was how Okonkwo-Praskins characterized the initiative, which cost taxpayers an estimated $41,000, a figure that includes the lamination.

Critics have noted that the Express Lane leads to the same window, the same clerk, and the same form, which must be filled out in blue or black ink, but never the blue that is slightly too black. A spokesperson for the agency rejected the criticism as “negative,” adding that customers in the Express Lane are also entitled to a take-a-number ticket printed on slightly shinier paper.

The DMV says it is already evaluating a Super Express Lane for customers who have been waiting since the previous Thursday, which would be distinguished by a second laminated sign. A pilot program is expected to begin as soon as someone locates the laminator, which was last seen on Tuesday.

At press time, the first customer in the Express Lane had reached the front of the line and was told to go back and get in the other line, which was also the Express Lane.