A pilot program designed to curtail drunk driving in West Maui over the holidays has some hopping mad. For over a month now, Hailoha-Lit has offered anyone a free ride if they find themselves on Front Street after a night of celebrating without a way to get home. A partnership between the city of Lahaina and the popular rideshare service Hailoha, the program has already delivered dozens of tourists safely to their hotels. However, many Hailoha drivers say the free service is potentially dangerous and the company has grossly lowered standards to meet demand.
Lahaina saw a record number of accidents, many involving inebriated drivers, last year and 2036 was on track to beat the record again. “We knew something needed to be done and I think we came up with a great solution,” says Mayor Albert Cravalho. Bartenders, police officers, and local business owners carry vouchers for the free rideshare service. After filling out a form with their basic information and declaring that they don’t have the money for a taxi, inebriated people get a free ride from a Hailoha-Lit driver. The service even provides a retrieval voucher for customer’s cars if they were towed, and a reimbursement envelope to send a donation at a later date. Cravalho says he expects other cities to offer similar services soon.
“We’ve seen a 60% drop in police and service calls since the program started and it runs entirely on donations. I’m not sure why some of these drivers see the program as a threat. Every driver can turn in a voucher for reimbursement it’s not like we’re taking away their business. Sure, some of the Hailoha-Lit vehicles may be a little rundown or unusual, but I don’t see the passengers complaining when they get to their destinations safely. The only problem here is disgruntled drivers making a scene.”
Mark Me’e doesn’t see it that way. A long time Hailoha driver Me’e says the program makes a mockery of ride-sharing services and Hailoha’s standards for Lit drivers are dangerous to the industry and more importantly to the public.
“When a passenger gets in my car, pays me, and gives me a location they get three things from me: a mint, a safe comfortable ride, and my undying devotion until we reach our destination. There has always been a strong social pact between driver and passenger. Whether it was ensuring nobody fell out of your canoe 3,000-years-ago, protecting passengers from bandits on your stagecoach, or ensuring everyone can make their connecting flights by going above a particularly bad storm in a jet, the job of taking people from one place to another has always been a sacred one, not to be taken lightly. I’ve seen people using Manimal ATVs as Lit drivers and we all know how unsafe those things are. If that wasn’t bad enough, I’ve also witnessed people riding on bike handlebars, in wagons, and even a lady pushing around tourists in a wheelbarrow. There is nothing sacred or honorable about delivering drunks in a piece of garden equipment.”
While the mayor denies Mark’s accusations and Hailoha says they only authorize the use of “wheeled vehicles” in the Lit program, there are numerous stories on social media sites detailing unusual rides home using the program. One such story involves 34-year-old Camilla Brandt and her husband Tim.
“It was our last night in Lahaina and we definitely overdid it. Tim had lost the credit cards somewhere between beach bars and I had left my purse in the hotel. We were trying to figure out what to do when a server told us about Hailoha-Lit and handed us a voucher. We had no idea what we were about to experience.
Randy was our driver. He explained how much he loved Lit and how the extra income was helping him take care of his grandmother. We didn’t understand at first what he meant when he said he never brought two people home before but was willing to try if we were. Then he went on to say that his car had broken down earlier that week and would be giving us piggy-back rides. We laughed, but he didn’t laugh with us. We just felt so bad for him that we thought we’d give it a try.
To be honest I don’t remember everything clearly because we did have a lot to drink and we were both trying so hard not to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. I just remember him carrying me a few hundred feet and then going back for Tim over and over again. Riding on his back was really bumpy and we had to stop frequently so I could puke but he didn’t seem to mind. Even so, Tim offered just to walk alongside us when he was getting bogged down on the beach, there was no point in all three of us retching in the sand, but Randy wouldn’t hear it. The piggy-back rides just got slower and slower. He collapsed about a half-mile from the hotel, but even then he was only concerned about us giving him a 4-star rating. He refused to let us call someone to help clean him up so we left him there sitting alongside the road with one of the best vacation stories in the history of vacations. I hope things got better for Randy and he isn’t still lugging around drunk people on his back. It was fun, but Hailoha needs a better screening process.”
