Fifty-Nine Bridges, Mostly One Lane: How the Hāna Road Is Meant to Work

The Hāna Highway runs roughly 64 miles with something in the region of 600 curves and 59 bridges. Most of those bridges carry one lane. Several are close to a century old, and the road was built to connect windward villages rather than to serve visitors.

Around 1,500 people live along it. They drive it to work, to school and to the doctor, and on a weekday morning a good share of the traffic is theirs.

The bridge convention

It is unwritten, it is universal, and it takes thirty seconds to learn.

• The vehicle already on the bridge, or first to arrive at it, crosses. The other waits behind the line.
• Vehicles cross in groups of about five or six, then yield to the other side. Do not let twenty cars through while three wait.
• A raised hand or a flash of the headlights from the far side means go. Wave back.
• Never stop on a bridge. Not for a photograph, not to let a passenger out, not for ten seconds.

Pullouts

Stop only in a marked pullout, fully off the asphalt, with both wheels clear. If it is full, keep driving; there is another one shortly. Do not park in front of a gate, on a driveway apron, or on the grass verge outside a house, because in several villages the verge is the only parking the residents have.

The waterfalls that look most inviting from a blind curve are exactly the ones with nowhere safe to stop. Let them go.

Letting people past

This is the one that matters most. If three or more cars are behind you, use the next pullout and let them go. It costs you ninety seconds. For the driver behind it may be the difference between making a shift and not.

Two more things

Several roadside stops are on private land and charge for parking. Pay it; it funds the toilets and the litter picking.

And do not attempt the road after a transpacific flight on the same day, or in the dark. Three hours each way of continuous concentration is the actual requirement, and fatigue is what puts rental cars into the ditch on this road.