Maui Looking at Temu, Unused Golf Course Carts to Address Bus Crisis

With multiple buses broken down, Maui County officials are turning to options like Temu and unused golf carts for emergency resolution of a burgeoning public transport crisis.

“We have so many buses down right now, it's probably a historic crisis for us,” said Gaylord Imua, director of public transport for the county. “We're open to looking anywhere for buses that actually roll. We have found that Temu may be the fastest solution.”

The massive Chinese-owned e-commerce marketplace is known to sell just about anything, mainly discounted clothing, electronics, and home goods. Its aggressive marketing practices are well-known, as is the tendency for its ads to over-sell the size or capabilities of products.

“The ‘Shop like a billionaire’ slogan caught our attention, because the county is somehow flush with funds according to the new budget, and we need a lot of buses shipped fast,” Imua said.

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Another option is an overload of electric trams and large golf carts at golf courses on Maui, which have either closed or were forced to cut back dramatically because of the county’s mismanagement of water distribution.

“Those poor golf courses, the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) stopped coming to Maui, so business is way down, with little hope in sight. We hear they have a lot of electric carts available, which is good, because we have a lot of electric buses not working and who knows where the heck to find parts for those things?”

A county government watchdog questioned why Maui has such a dramatic need for working buses, when it seems the rest of the country is flush with buses that move lots of people all the time.

“Who could have foreseen that Chinese electric buses might not last?” asked Judy Walaʻau of the Maui Taxpayers’ Working Group (MTWG), facetiously. “They have no padding on the seats to cut weight so they can make it up grades, and, well, they are made in China. So … they broke down.”

“And who could have thought that Maui losing the PGA would come in handy so soon?”

It is unknown how the county will fund all the bus repair work needed, the parts required, and the Temu purchases plus the cost of renting, insuring, and moving golf carts.

An emergency county budget committee meeting is expected by the end of May to discuss a ginormous loss of property tax revenue due to the precipitous drop in values of vacation rental properties the past two years.

“New taxes are always an option,” Mayor Richard Bissen said. “They always seemed to work before.”

Walaʻau of the Maui Taxpayers’ Working Group says someone should have at least suspected that Chinese-made electric buses would have reliability issues.

“Maybe electric cars can help reduce global warming,” she said, “but what we're learning is Chinese electric buses not so good.”

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