Studded tire ban: yea or nay? (Portland, Bend: to buy, tax, living)

[PNW-type-gal]

So there is an effort to collect signatures for a ballot measure to ban studded tires in the state of Oregon (although it won't likely hit the ballot until 2012). Your opinion?

Where the metal meets the road | OregonLive.com

[PNW-type-gal]

In my neck of the woods, this is being discussed as "yet another mandate" from Portland to the rest of Oregon because of conditions in the Portland metro area.

Studded tires are terrible on wet, non-icy surfaces and they are bad in packed snow. On the other hand, in black ice conditions, they are very handy, especially when you have to be at work at 6am in the winter. You can't chain up for black ice patches because you can't run chains on dry pavement (another fact Portland drivers seem to forget). There is nothing like studs on an icy hill - I have quite a bit of driving experience, including open wheel racing, and sometimes equipment trumps skill. That's a pretty specific application, though.

As always, for the me the issue is that people misuse them. My neighbors in Portland would put them on Nov 1 and pull them off April 1, no matter what the weather was. I had a set of studs that I used, but I also had a garage, jacks and an air compressor. When the forecast was for ice, the studs went on and when the forecast passed, they came off. In general, since I lived in the hills, I probably used them 4-5 times a winter, for a couple of days at a time. One set of studded tires lasted me almost 10 years. Now that I live where snow is much more common, I bought specialty snow and ice tires - my Blizzaks last one season, tops, and they are frankly scary on dry pavement because of the soft tire squirm. It's harder to do the "bad weather: on, good weather: off" thing on this side of the Cascades.

[Bendite]

I'm now going into my seventh winter in Bend after more than 40 years in Boulder and Denver, Colo. I haven't had studs on my tires since I drove an old '56 Chevy BelAire, in the early 70s. For me there are three keys: the best tires (I have Nokian right now and they are superb); driving at a safe speed & distance, and knowing how your vehicle handles on ice. In Bend, there might be three or four days where the roads are terribly icy in a year and I have not really had problems negotiating the streets (though these roundabouts can get tricky). If there is a hill and conditions are really bad, I try to find another way to get to where I am going and avoid the hill (I also avoid Hwy 97 between Bend and Sunriver). I think the roads in PDX get worse during ice storms than they ever get here. Studs (just like 4x4 and all wheel drive) give some drivers a misguided sense of safety that lets them drive as if they are on bare pavement. If studs are to be allowed, they should at least impose a substantial road tax on them for all the damage they do

[Dogmama50]

I've lived in the Colorado mountains for years and can't think of a time when good tires and a 4x4 haven't gotten me through the roads. We spent a year in Hood River and I can see the argument for studded tires after living there. The roads were horrible, all hills, not enough plows, snow pack for months on end. Everyone said it was an unusual winter but the roads were the worse I've ever encountered, I had never put my jeep into 4 wheel low until that year. My husband had to buy chains just to get back through the Gorge after landing in Portland, they closed it for a few days hours after he made it home.

I know studs and chains do horrible damage to the roads, but in a place like Hood River they are sometimes a necessity.

[bluebird39]

We lived in Northern Michigan for 3 winters, and had a really good set of tires, but as soon as we got here in Pendleton, they were worthless (had to get studs). There are so many hills, no plows, and the NE dry winter weather is super cold at night, above freezing during the day, which makes lots of ice. I don't know what I'd do without studs. They save lives here!

[Larry Caldwell]

My wife drives the Siskiyou passes every day. I don't. She will get studded M&S tires put on her Jeep, probably sometime in November. Rain followed by freezing is common on her drive, particularly on the north slopes. Studded tires are by far her safest choice. I make do with plain old 6-ply touring tires year round on my pickup, and put on chains if I ever need them, but I have an alternative "ice route" that avoids hills.

[Terryj]

I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for 6 years, starting in October and ending in May, you can count on icey roads, I never used studded tires all the years I live there. All my tires were siped, what that means is they cut hundred of slices across your tire tread, what this does is to give your tires more traction on slippery surfaces and they allow your tires to run cooler in the summer. There are alternatives to studded tires, studded tires do allot of damage to hwys.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by Terryj

I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for 6 years, starting in October and ending in May, you can count on icey roads, I never used studded tires all the years I live there. All my tires were siped, what that means is they cut hundred of slices across your tire tread, what this does is to give your tires more traction on slippery surfaces and they allow your tires to run cooler in the summer. There are alternatives to studded tires, studded tires do allot of damage to hwys.

I was coming in to say this. In this day and age, with technology that we have, studded tires just aren't needed.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by Terryj

I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for 6 years, starting in October and ending in May, you can count on icey roads, I never used studded tires all the years I live there. All my tires were siped, what that means is they cut hundred of slices across your tire tread, what this does is to give your tires more traction on slippery surfaces and they allow your tires to run cooler in the summer. There are alternatives to studded tires, studded tires do allot of damage to hwys.

I live in both Oregon and Alaska. I've never used studs in Alaska. But in the interior of Alaska, after freeze up and before breakup, the roads aren't slippery. They don't often at all have the freeze/melt/and then freeze again thing happening within 24 hours that we have in the hills and mountains and plateaus of Oregon. Except for a rare week or so every now and then in December, once freeze-up takes place, it stays frozen until spring. And the snow is different in the Fairbanks area than it is in Oregon...so much drier, even when it does melt a little there's not the moisture caused by snowmelt here. And most of Alaska driving doesn't involve a lot of hills though I realize there's some of that around Fairbanks. But you know all that, I'm sure. I'm just saying that there are very different driving conditions involved between the colder parts of Oregon and the colder parts of Alaska. I'll take Fairbanks driving any day.

I use studs in Oregon for the same reason that Larry's wife does, because I drive the mountain passes often. If I had to, I'd pay more for doing so, why not, if they cause damage to the highways.

[Metlakatla]

They're having an interesting discussion in the Alaska forum about studded tires also; most people seem to think they're necessary. But they're talking about the Anchorage area and not up around Fairbanks; pretty different driving conditions between the two.

//www.city-data.com/forum/ancho...ded-tires.html