26 thoughts on “What’s Happening With Hawaii Drivers You Should Know About”
Don K.
The one thing that I Never do on any of the Islands is just pull out when the light turns green for me. By far, in my over 30 years of visiting in Hawaii, the worst thing is the red light runners whether on 2 or 4 wheels and that system has probably saved my life on more occasions than I can remember with Maui being the absolute worst.
From my perspective living on the big island…courtesy is almost non existent. People pull onto the highway without slowing down or even looking, way too many drivers drive well under the speed limit causing long “trains” of cars, apparently they don’t look behind them. And yes, don’t even get me started on the roads. Unfortunately we have lots of earthquakes due to Kilauea. I wish the drivers here were more aware that other drivers use the roads too and should exercise a little courtesy and pull over and let others go about their business.
No.
your statement: On hills with narrow roads, the driver going down has the right of way over the driver going up. Sometimes, you need to move over and let the downhill driver pass you.
When I visited Hawaii I left the driving to someone else. On Oahu I took The Bus and shuttles. On the other islands I took shuttles. I was impressed at the professional way the driver maneuvered the Road to Hana. When we went to Haleiwa all the Waikiki traffic must have followed us! It was crowded!
We’ve been on the Big Island 8 years now. I still see the same amount of kindness and Aloha as when we arrived. Drivers will most often stop for pedestrians to let them cross even if they aren’t in a proper crosswalk. I’m let into the main road traffic pretty easily and I try to do the same. When I hear a horn, which is rare compared to when we visit family in Tampa, I believe most often it is a visitor.
We moved to east side of Big Island four and a half years ago and were pleasantly surprised at how courteous local drivers were. Since then the situation has really changed, and not for the good. Long timers here are still friendly and courteous but the new transplants from the mainland and elsewhere are bringing their former driving habits with them. The top 5 complaints you listed in the post are what we are seeing a lot of. Hopefully, in time, newcomers will take a chill pill and remember that the laid back lifestyle of Hawaii is why they wanted to move here!
“What was interesting to note is that 33% of survey participants in Hawaii have seen drivers get out of their cars to confront others. That is a much higher percentage than the Forbes survey indicated.”
Not necessarily – it’s possible some/most of those drivers saw the same drivers getting out of their cars.
Still, the roads and highways in Hawaii were not designed/built properly and poor road behavior is probably to be expected.
I wouldn’t call 435 drivers out of a population of 1.4 million a “survey”. And I think the results would vary (dramatically?) island to island. Driving the H 1 in Honolulu is very different from driving Route 50 in Kauai. On Kauai, I still see people routinely let others merge, rarely hear a horn, rarely see tailgating, and do see Shaka’s for letting people go/merge ahead of you. Years ago I saw a great bumper sticker on an old car on a Kauai road driven my a local – “If you think I’m driving too slow, you’re on the wrong island.” Nuff said.
Yes there’s still a good amount of aloha on the road here on Kauai. We also see how much it is changing, and, as Pattie mentioned in an earlier comment, not for the better.
Spot on Tom…. Just had a friend visit (they went to Oahu and Maui) and commented how civil and nice the people they encountered in Hawaii compared to the mainland were. The simple fact is your experience is going to mirror how you drive. Drive with Aloha and it’s unlikely you’ll encounter any problems, drive aggressively and you likely will. I’m thinking the change in attitude by some says more about the change in some American’s attitude’s towards others then it says about Hawaii.
The one thing that I Never do on any of the Islands is just pull out when the light turns green for me. By far, in my over 30 years of visiting in Hawaii, the worst thing is the red light runners whether on 2 or 4 wheels and that system has probably saved my life on more occasions than I can remember with Maui being the absolute worst.
This is strictly anecdotal, but I know what I see.
The overwhelming majority (as in almost all) of the people I see with their phones glued to their head are … [wait for it] … women.
Just saying.
From my perspective living on the big island…courtesy is almost non existent. People pull onto the highway without slowing down or even looking, way too many drivers drive well under the speed limit causing long “trains” of cars, apparently they don’t look behind them. And yes, don’t even get me started on the roads. Unfortunately we have lots of earthquakes due to Kilauea. I wish the drivers here were more aware that other drivers use the roads too and should exercise a little courtesy and pull over and let others go about their business.
No.
your statement: On hills with narrow roads, the driver going down has the right of way over the driver going up. Sometimes, you need to move over and let the downhill driver pass you.
Uphill has the right of way
When I visited Hawaii I left the driving to someone else. On Oahu I took The Bus and shuttles. On the other islands I took shuttles. I was impressed at the professional way the driver maneuvered the Road to Hana. When we went to Haleiwa all the Waikiki traffic must have followed us! It was crowded!
We’ve been on the Big Island 8 years now. I still see the same amount of kindness and Aloha as when we arrived. Drivers will most often stop for pedestrians to let them cross even if they aren’t in a proper crosswalk. I’m let into the main road traffic pretty easily and I try to do the same. When I hear a horn, which is rare compared to when we visit family in Tampa, I believe most often it is a visitor.
Downhill traffic has the right of way??? It’s just the opposite in Washington state. No wonder people get confused.
Same here in CA, uphill has right of way as it’s harder to maintain control if you have to drive backwards downhill.
Uphill has the Right Of Way on the BI too because of clutch shifting and hauling heavy loads
We moved to east side of Big Island four and a half years ago and were pleasantly surprised at how courteous local drivers were. Since then the situation has really changed, and not for the good. Long timers here are still friendly and courteous but the new transplants from the mainland and elsewhere are bringing their former driving habits with them. The top 5 complaints you listed in the post are what we are seeing a lot of. Hopefully, in time, newcomers will take a chill pill and remember that the laid back lifestyle of Hawaii is why they wanted to move here!
BOH,
“What was interesting to note is that 33% of survey participants in Hawaii have seen drivers get out of their cars to confront others. That is a much higher percentage than the Forbes survey indicated.”
Not necessarily – it’s possible some/most of those drivers saw the same drivers getting out of their cars.
Still, the roads and highways in Hawaii were not designed/built properly and poor road behavior is probably to be expected.
Aloha.
I wouldn’t call 435 drivers out of a population of 1.4 million a “survey”. And I think the results would vary (dramatically?) island to island. Driving the H 1 in Honolulu is very different from driving Route 50 in Kauai. On Kauai, I still see people routinely let others merge, rarely hear a horn, rarely see tailgating, and do see Shaka’s for letting people go/merge ahead of you. Years ago I saw a great bumper sticker on an old car on a Kauai road driven my a local – “If you think I’m driving too slow, you’re on the wrong island.” Nuff said.
Hi Tom.
Yes there’s still a good amount of aloha on the road here on Kauai. We also see how much it is changing, and, as Pattie mentioned in an earlier comment, not for the better.
Aloha.
Tom,
I went to Survey Monkey with other 1,400,000 population, and they returned a sample size of 385, even less than the 435.
That was with a Confidence Level of 95% and a Margin of Error of 5%
When pollsters are checking with the public to see who they plan to vote for for President, I think they survey less than 1500.
Aloha
Spot on Tom…. Just had a friend visit (they went to Oahu and Maui) and commented how civil and nice the people they encountered in Hawaii compared to the mainland were. The simple fact is your experience is going to mirror how you drive. Drive with Aloha and it’s unlikely you’ll encounter any problems, drive aggressively and you likely will. I’m thinking the change in attitude by some says more about the change in some American’s attitude’s towards others then it says about Hawaii.