Maui News: Council backs hike in insurance for bicycle tours

The Maui County Council on Friday approved increasing insurance requirements for bicycle tours from $1 million to $3 million, saying it would provide the county with needed liability protection. The action was a softer hike than the previously proposed $5 million single limit and $10 million annual aggregate insurance requirement. But it still came over the objections of tour operators, who said they were already working with community groups to address safety and traffic concerns.

They said a big insurance hike could threaten their businesses. “High insurance is not the answer,” said Phil Feliciano of Cruiser Phil’s. The council voted 8-1 for the $3 million insurance hike, with Council Member Jo Anne Johnson opposed. Council Member Mike Victorino said he appreciated the tour operators’ openness to working with the community and making changes, such as keeping bikes on the shoulder of the road, and having vans wait in pull-outs to let traffic pass.

“It is very apparent the bicycle tour companies and others are making efforts to make the bike tour businesses safer,” he said. But he said with the county not indemnified for accidents occurring on roads, as it is for beaches, higher coverage was needed to protect against costly lawsuits. “I want to make sure the people of Maui County are protected,” he said. Johnson said increasing insurance premiums would do nothing to resolve issues surrounding unguided bike tours, which she and others felt were more of a problem than the escorted rides.

She also said the higher rates wouldn’t improve safety. “For me it’s about injury prevention, as opposed to insurance,” she said. Others noted that it took the threat of raising insurance requirements to get the bike tours to address long-standing complaints about safety and traffic impacts. “It’s not like the community hasn’t been yelling and screaming about this for years,” she said. Jon Thuro of Maui Mountain Cruisers said the insurance hike would create an “unbalanced playing field” for guided tours competing with unregulated, unguided bike tours that he argued cause most of the problems.

With guided tours addressing community concerns, a big increase in insurance was unnecessary. “It’s punitive. It’s arbitrary,” he said. Jimmy Muschetti, leader of the Upcountry Citizens Committee for Bicycle and Traffic Safety, acknowledged that tour companies had worked with his group to resolve concerns. He urged council members to focus on the real issues surrounding bike tours. “The safety issue somehow got narrowed down to this insurance bill,” he said.

“But we don’t want to lose sight of safety.” But Kula resident Paula Holroyd said that, with so many bike tours zooming down Maui roads, the county should still raise insurance requirements to guard against potential lawsuits. “The taxpayers of Maui need to be protected,” she said.