OGG Asks Maui Visitors to Name the Famous Speed Bumps at Airport

The speed bumps to get in and out of Kahului Airport are so famous, airport officials are asking visitors to give them a name so even more people will remember to slow down.

The speed bump just as vehicles enter the airport complex, and also on the other side of the loop where motorists can get out of the facility, are strangely engineered to cause the sharpest jolt possible to drivers and passengers.

"Word has gotten around that even motorcycles have a hard time getting over them at any decent speed," said OGG spokeswoman Madeline Pahupahu. "Yet visitors still think they can vroom vroom right in and out of our airport.

"We were thinking how we could better spread the word for people to slow down, and came up with this naming contest."

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Kahului Airport already has the biggest speed bumps of the 330 major airports in the United States, according to a study of airport speed bumps last year.

Some motorists have complained of neck or head pain from bonking their skulls on the ceiling inside their car while rolling over a speed bump at OGG. A woman from Seattle last year even had to spend the night under observation at Maui Memorial Medical Center.

The OGG Speed Bump Naming Contest began April 1, and so far airport officials have seen about a hundred entries. Pahupahu said some of the most memorable include:

For the entrance speed bump:

• Axle Buster
• Slow Da Heck Downer
• Be Sorry Soon
• Mainlander Repeller
• Old Reliable

For the exit speed bump:

• C Ya!
• We Told You to Slow Da Heck Down
• Welcome! Now Slow Down or Else!
• Head-Knocker
• Teeth Rattler

Last year's study ranked speed bumps based on engineering, height, width, size, and other factors like level of impact on a "Bone Jarring Scale." Kahului Airport ranked a 10 out of a possible 10 in that category.

"Bone-jarring is probably the best way to describe the OGG speed bumps," said Ahmed Agarwal of the National Airport Automobile Access Foundation (NAAAF), which commissioned the study. "We think whoever watches the cameras facing those speed bumps has a good laugh from the faces of those inside the cars upon impact."

Agarwal said his organization currently is investigating which major U.S. airport speed bumps break the most car axles. "Oh, OGG is favored in that one," he said. "I put 5 bucks down on it in our office pool."