You can tell a lot about a society’s cultural values by how people drive and if you’ve traveled to different parts of the world (or the USA for that matter) you can see a huge difference between, say, New York City and Reno, Nevada.
Hawaii also has it’s own driving style and if you come from a culture of aggressive driving, you’ll need to adjust if you want to get along with everyone else. I’ve also found that when understand our “Island Way” of driving and go with the flow (rather than against it), you’ll have a much more enjoyable and relaxing driving experience.
Our local girl Aina who was born and raised in Hawaii and currently going to school in the mainland brings an interesting perspective on how local drivers are different and things you should know, if you plan on driving here.
I visited home on Maui in October/November 2018. Waiting in traffic on the way to Kahului, stopped for a few minutes when a tourist who was “eating chips, talking to girlfriend and went to hit the brake but hit the gas instead” rear-ended us at 45+ mph. I spent the night in Maui Memorial ER with injuries.
PAY ATTENTION PEOPLE!!
Ugh… Sorry to hear that
On the BI, we noticed instances of resident people passing in no passing zones, and a lot of tailgating even when there was no way for the tailgated car to speed up. and there were some instances of little trucks passing on the right, using the “shoulder”. all in all, it was a little scary and made us hypervigilant driving and at intersections.
Last year when we were on the big island searching for a home to buy, I noticed that the Islanders weren’t all that Aloha on the roads. Granted… Pele was very busy doing what she does.. but everyone was very “not so nice”. Like I said maybe people were really stressed. I’m hoping so. I plan on making the difference when I arrive!