Just over a year ago, I wrote about the "downhill bike tours" in Maui. Never having been to Maui, or anyplace else in Hawaii, I can't comment on the route or terrain. I did, however, opine that "downhill tour" is an oxymoron. Every multiday bike tour I've taken has included hills, or even mountains, that I rode both up and down. And, save for a few downhill mountain bike rides I took in the '90's, when that first became a "thing," any time I've ridden down a hill, I've ridden up it, or some other incline.
So, in that sense, I have some difficulty in sympathizing with the "downhill tour" operators who stand to lose business after a new ordinance to limit them was passed the other day. That new regulation would limit which parts of the route can be used, the hours at which tours can operate and increases the minimum age limit from 12 to 15.
A line of riders on Hanamu Road in Olinda, Maui, October 2021 Photo by Matthew Thayer for The Maui News.
Tour operators are complaining about that last part because many tours include families. They also feel that the parts of the route that are now forbidden have some of the best views. That is one way I can sympathize with them: I would hate to lose those views, too.
On the other hand, I have to think that residents may have legitimate complaints about the riders, almost all of whom are tourists from outside of Hawaii. I would imagine that many don't have experience riding down long, steep downhills on roads with little or no separation from traffic or people's property. And I have to wonder whether those tour operators are sufficiently vetting the riders, not only for technical skill, but for emotional maturity. After all, a 15-year-old--or a 50-year-old for that matter--can be just as reckless as a 12-year-old, especially when adrenaline is rushing through them. They are exactly the sorts of riders who give the rest of us a bad name, whether on a mountain road in Hawaii or a residential street in Queens.
