Honolulu drivers freak out when it rains.
Not just the cloudburst, rainstorm, thunder-booming-overhead kind of spells. Even a shower. Even a drizzle. Three drops of water land on somebody’s windshield on the H-1 near Bishop Museum and holy kamoley, the brake lights start flashing like a disco and there’s 40 minutes added to everyone’s commute. Never mind if it’s just a kid spitting off the overpass or an errant splash from another driver’s overzealous windshield sprayer. Honolulu drivers step on the brakes, turn their wipers to max speed and go into crisis mode.
It’s not like that on the neighbor islands, where folks have retained their connection to the land and the elements and still drive with flattened cardboard boxes on the floor under the foot pedals to absorb excess rainwater that might drip off their footwear or leak in through rust lesions.
In Hilo when it rains, which is all the time, life goes on. Traffic flows as usual with the same stops, same goes. If rainwater starts to form navigable waterways along the side of the road, drivers don’t veer to avoid the vast puddles. They don’t even slow down. They plow on, a roostertail of water shooting from the back tires of their trucks as they hele on to wherever they’re hele-ing to.
On Kauai when it rains, which is almost all the time, people drive just as crazy as when the sun is shining. It can be pouring so hard that the rain doesn’t fall in drops, but in actual sheets of water, and people maybe get around to flicking on their wipers to the lowest speed. It can be the dead of night on an unlit country road with rain and wind coming in sideways and they’ll maybe roll the window halfway up and sweetly ask the dog riding shotgun if he’s getting wet.
Maui, well … in general, the island isn’t as rainy as Kauai and Hilo, so folks there have less practice driving when it’s pouring. The Upcountry folks can handle. The Lahaina-side people, well, they can’t drive very fast anyway. It’s Lahaina. Get traffic. We’ll leave them out of this rant for now.
But on Oahu, specifically in Honolulu, where drivers are supposed to be so daring and lead-footed … You guys! Come on! Do you know neighbor island drivers look at you with a kind of awe because you navigate scary city stuff like parallel parking, high-rise parking garages and changing lanes on the freeway? They think you have guts. They think you have skills. They come to Honolulu, consider renting a car and then call their cousins in Pearl City to drive them around instead.
Yes, drive with caution, but when it rains, don’t let caution turn to panic and panic turn to unsafe veering or unnecessary crawling. West-siders say that when it rains, that adds an hour to their commute. We’re heading into the rainy season. Don’t freak out.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
