strangely low speed limits in Maui

[FredAkbar]

I visited Maui last week and had a rental car so I spent a far bit of time driving around the island, mainly in and around Kihei but also to/from Wailea, Kahului, and Lahaina.

I was surprised at how low the speed limits are, quite frequently. 4-lane highways (e.g. 31, 311) with very few intersections are often 45mph or even 35mph for large stretches. Speed limits in the town are often 20mph. I even saw a 10mph at one point, for no particular reason.

FWIW, traffic on the highway was going closer to 50-60mph, and at one point I passed a parked/hidden cop when I was going roughly 60 in a 45 or have might been a 35 (on the aforementioned rural highway) and nothing came of it.

I'm from California so I'm used to people driving a fair bit faster than the speed limit, but this was absurd on a whole new level. Are the speed limits even real/respected? Or is this an "island time" situation where people are just happy to drive slowly because they live in a tropical paradise?

[Quillz]

I got pulled over in an Indian reservation near Cape Flattery, WA for going 15 mph in a 10 mph zone. So yes, they are real speed limits and they are enforced. (However the officer only gave me a warning). There didn't appear to be any real need for a speed limit that low, so I suspect it might have been artificial to allow for ticket quotas.

[roadman65]

Connecticut is another. The only roads with higher speed limits are the freeways. All two lane roads average 35-40, especially both US 1 and US 7.

Then again Connecticut is mostly suburban in character unlike Maui which is probably rural or semi rural.

[Max Rockatansky]

Hana Highway had a bunch of 15 MPH zones.  I ultimately ended up ignoring most of the artificially low limits unless they were in an area where people lived.  Oahu had the same phenomenon, it seems to just be how Hawaii is. 

Regarding Hana Highway, much of that trip I was going 30 MPH plus.  It's a beautiful road for sure but nowhere near the harrowing experience it was hyped to be by tourism sites and locals.  It reminded me of driving around on some sort of San Benito County road, but on the ocean.

[Quillz]

Hana Highway had a bunch of 15 MPH zones.  I ultimately ended up ignoring most of the artificially low limits unless they were in an area where people lived.  Oahu had the same phenomenon, it seems to just be how Hawaii is. 

Regarding Hana Highway, much of that trip I was going 30 MPH plus.  It's a beautiful road for sure but nowhere near the harrowing experience it was hyped to be by tourism sites and locals.  It reminded me of driving around on some sort of San Benito County road, but on the ocean.

I mentioned in another thread that the Dalton Highway in Alaska is not at all scary, dangerous, or harrowing. It's just another typical unpaved highway in Alaska, and pretty much all of its reputation comes from misinformation, TV show hype, or not understanding the difference between lack of services and actual poor road quality. So I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that those Hawaiian highways are similar, probably far less difficult to drive than is often perceived. Frankly, the worst highway I've ever been on was CA-236. One-and-a-half lanes wide combined with blind curves and traffic, now that's been a far scarier experience than any highway I can think of.

[Max Rockatansky]

Hana Highway had a bunch of 15 MPH zones.  I ultimately ended up ignoring most of the artificially low limits unless they were in an area where people lived.  Oahu had the same phenomenon, it seems to just be how Hawaii is. 

Regarding Hana Highway, much of that trip I was going 30 MPH plus.  It's a beautiful road for sure but nowhere near the harrowing experience it was hyped to be by tourism sites and locals.  It reminded me of driving around on some sort of San Benito County road, but on the ocean.

I mentioned in another thread that the Dalton Highway in Alaska is not at all scary, dangerous, or harrowing. It's just another typical unpaved highway in Alaska, and pretty much all of its reputation comes from misinformation, TV show hype, or not understanding the difference between lack of services and actual poor road quality. So I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that those Hawaiian highways are similar, probably far less difficult to drive than is often perceived. Frankly, the worst highway I've ever been on was CA-236. One-and-a-half lanes wide combined with blind curves and traffic, now that's been a far scarier experience than any highway I can think of.

Amusingly I made my cousin sick to her stomach rocketing around the one lane segment of CA 236 on a foggy morning.  She had issues hiking for awhile when we got to Big Basin

[Quillz]

I almost got hit three times from people doing that. Driving really fast around the bends, and usually looking at their phones. I drive the highway in and out of Big Bend, but I'm always really weary when doing so.

[RZF]

I drove HI-31 (Pi'ilani Hwy) on the south side of Maui when I was there two years ago. That's a fun, remote, tight, scantily-paved road that I can't even fathom why the state would be proud to say it maintains.

[Max Rockatansky]

It doesn't, that's maintained by Maui County.

[FredAkbar]

I did the road to Hana (the full loop clockwise around the east half of the island), and I agree it wasn't super scary, though I wasn't a big fan of the unpaved portions as I was scared of rocks giving us a flat tire (our rental car was a convertible so not exactly prime off-roading material).

A bit scarier but still doable was the drive around the northwest section of the island (highway 340). Lots of super narrow one-lane stretches, where it's sometimes necessary to back up if you encounter someone coming the other way. Ideally everyone could just agree to do it in the same direction...but I guess the locals have an actual need to drive on those roads.

[jakeroot]

I live in Okinawa, often described as Japan's Hawaii. We have a similar "island time" phenomenon when it comes to speed limits. They are not artificially low per-se; in many ways they are consistent with the rest of Japan. But they are decently well-observed...but that could be a Japanese thing.

Surface roads max out at 60 km/h (40mph), many are marked for 50 km/h, 40 km/h, 30 km/h, and 20 km/h as well. The more annoying limit is actually the expressways, which are designed more like autobahns with widely-spaced exits and wide, sweeping curves. Yet, the limit maxes out at 80 km/h (50mph), although adherence to 80 is...limited, to put it mildly. At least the mainland has 120 limits on some expressways.

[gonealookin]

I did the road to Hana (the full loop clockwise around the east half of the island), and I agree it wasn't super scary, though I wasn't a big fan of the unpaved portions as I was scared of rocks giving us a flat tire (our rental car was a convertible so not exactly prime off-roading material).

A bit scarier but still doable was the drive around the northwest section of the island (highway 340). Lots of super narrow one-lane stretches, where it's sometimes necessary to back up if you encounter someone coming the other way. Ideally everyone could just agree to do it in the same direction...but I guess the locals have an actual need to drive on those roads.

I have done both of those loops, once, and agree with those observations.  The northwest loop I did counterclockwise and decided that was the dumb direction.  More people seemed to be doing it clockwise, and some of those places you have to back up, counterclockwise puts you on the side with the steep dropoff.

I can't really imagine doing either full loop ever again.  Since then I guess I have been as far past Lahaina as Kapalua, and there are a few hiking trailheads northwest of Kahului on the other side, but no reason to drive the part in between.  The coastal spots out near Hana have been checked off the list, and while they are nice if you get dry weather I don't see much reason to repeat that trip.