Maui bike tours face new limits starting today

A winding bicycle ride with stunning vistas down the side of 10,000-foot Haleakala all the way to the ocean has for decades been a staple activity for tourists visiting Maui.

Starting today, the ride is going to be a bit different.

An ordinance approved by the Maui County Council establishes new restrictions on commercial bicycle tour companies and prohibits them from riding through Kula, which eliminates about a third of the ride down the mountain.

“I’m absolutely thrilled we won’t have that to deal with anymore,” said Bobbie Patnode, who lives on Crater Road in Kula, which is on the main route for the bike tours. “It’s been an extremely dangerous situation for years and years.”

The tour companies, meanwhile, are upset and saying the restrictions will hit their bottom line and could even lead to the decimation of the entire industry.

Under the ordinance, the tour companies will not be able to run their tours below mile marker 3 on Haleakala Crater Road to mile marker 9.5, which encompasses the mountainside community of Kula.

In addition, tours that travel on Baldwin Avenue from Makawao to Paia will be allowed only from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and prohibited on Wednesdays, as well as on King Kamehameha Day, Prince Kuhio Day and La Ho‘iho‘i Ea (Sovereignty Restoration Day).

Tours will be limited to no more than 10 bicycle riders at a time and available only for those over the age of 15.

Permit holders, according to the ordinance, must require riders to sign the Bike Pono Pledge, which states, “I will bike pono, with awareness of my surroundings, attention to my bike speed, and utmost safety for myself and the cars that share the roads.”

When Council members approved the ordinance in late 2022, they said it was intended to address public safety, traffic and liability concerns.

But Jeremy Hall, CEO of Bike Maui, the island’s large bicycle tour company, said the measure doesn’t have anything to do with safety.

“The Council just wants to support cars,” he said. “It’s a traffic concern.”

Hall said complying with the ordinance will end up doubling his operational costs and cutting into his bottom line as a third of the ride down the mountain will be sliced away.

The entire industry is threatened, he said, including the 25 employees at his Haiku-based company, he said.

The measure, he said, also will hurt businesses that cater to tourists in Kula and Makawao because his tours will now bypass those towns because they become logistically inconvenient. Instead of local restaurants feeding the customers, the company will do it.

The Maui bicycle tour industry started on the mountain in the 1980s, and Hall said his dad, Ben Hall, started the company offering bike tours in 1992.

The younger Hall said many of those complaining about the tours weren’t even around back then.

“It’s like someone moving next to the airport and complaining about the airlines,” he said.

Matt Domenichini, owner of the small “boutique” bike tour company Maui Bombers, said he’s unhappy about the new ordinance because his customers will miss out on some of the best scenery on the entire route.

“It solves nothing,” he said, adding that if the county wanted to improve safety and traffic congestion, it would restrict unguided tours and place limits on tour sizes.

Domenichini, who leads one tour each day, said he fears that Makawao, Paia and Haiku will insist on similar restrictions in their communities.

“Ultimately, I don’t think they don’t want us around anywhere,” he said.

The Kula Community Association pushed hard to get the County Council to pass the measure, but board President Heather Mueller said she doesn’t want the bicycle tours to end. She said she’s heard too many comments over the years from tourists who consider the ride down Haleakala a highlight of their visit.

Mueller said she considers the ordinance a good compromise that gives Kula residents a respite from the traffic congestion and safety concerns that have been expressed by residents for years.

Patnode, the Crater Road resident, is one of those who have been expressing concerns for years.

“You can’t imagine what it’s like to follow these tours,” she said. “They’re terrible, dangerous.”

With the ordinance set to take affect this morning, “I’m practically having a party.”