Hana Highway Regulation was established in 2016 to address the issue of tourism impacts occurring in East Maui. We facilitated community outreach by hosting a series of town hall style meetings and resident working groups over the last seven years. Hana Highway Regulation manages the volunteer efforts of residents from Paia to Hana, and through the backside to Kula gathering traffic data and visitor behavioral reports to make sound conclusions. Our organization has provided countless testimonies​, presentations and consultations that bring attention to the need for visitor management and the implementation of proven solutions. Hana Highway Regulation works to promote the Road to Hana code of conduct, encouraging legal sites and attractions for visitor enjoyment while highlighting local businesses. We manage a certification program that has produced a registry of permitted commercial tour operators. Hana Highway Regulation has worked side by side with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to address unlicensed motor carrier operators, providing guidance and assistance to PUC officers to help identify and cite illegal tour operators.

HHR was named as a Stakeholder in House Concurrent Resolution No. 29, legislation that encourages the Department of Transportation to work with identified stakeholders to develop a holistic management plan for Hana Hwy. This has been the continuum to improve road safety for residents and visitors. We have not received any County, State of Federal funding support to date and have done all of this work out of our kuleana initiative (stewardship responsibility) with community support. 

MVCB and HTA recently released a grant opportunity known as the 2023 East Maui Tourism Management Pilot Program RFP making fiscal support available to community organizations in order to address tourism impacts occurring at five sites along the Hana Highway; these five sites are: Bamboo forest Kailua, Waikamoi bridge at MM10, Kaihalulu aka Red Sand Beach, Waioka referred to as Venus pools and South Wailua bridge known as Honolewa. This RFP is an outcome of Hana Highway Regulation advocacy. There is a page titled Industry Engagement at HanaHighwayRegulation.com that outlines our communication exchange with visitor industry leaders since 2017. This highlights our repeated requests for the visitor industry to collaborate with community. 

Hana Highway Regulation in partnership with Lokahi Pacific as our committed fiscal administrator, applied for a portion of this MVCB / HTA grant funding opportunity to work with the kuleana holders of Kailua and Waikamoi to address impacts occurring on the North East end.

Our plan is entitled The Hana Highway Information Project, a two fold proposal which aims to; 1. Create a standardized information platform to establish credible pre-arrival visitor education that nurtures visitor preparedness, and 2. Harnesses generational residents of Kailua and Waikamoi to be stationed in the field to render visitor consultation in order to improve road safety. 

In acknowledgment of the kuleana rendered by our organization over the last seven years, please sign this petition of support for Hana Highway Regulation’s proposal that was submitted as a grant application with Maui Visitors & Convention Bureau on May 5th. Grant awards are announced on June 9th!