While the roads were empty in 2020, Vineyard Street in Wailuku got a revamp.

A new parking garage was put up. Crosswalks were added for pedestrian safety. An automatic toll both is installed at the exit to the Maui Medical Group parking lot.

All seemingly good things. However, I think the redesign has a few details that are compounding into a big problem.

Within the last year, there have there been four accidents. Last July, an elderly man leaving Maui Medical parking lot speeds out, oversteers on the turn right onto vineyard and hits the sleep center. Later, a car leaving speeds out and totals a resident’s car. Last December, a Tesla does the same move, but accelerates and ends up lifted on a bollard. Finally, last week, an elderly person plows through a bollard and into a resident’s car rotating it 180°.

Wailuku on a workday gets busy. Vineyard street gets congested and hard to turn on to. From my apartment, I can hear cars every single day jump the curb while taking the right turn from High Street onto Vineyard.

It continues. A resident was on a trip and came home to a totaled car. A neighbor on the first-floor apartment directly facing the parking lot twice had a car right up against the outside wall of her unit.

How long until the building is compromised? How fortified does the property have to be with bollards? Why should our landlord shoulder this when it only recently became an issue by the changing of the road?

Alika Bustillos
Wailuku