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Growing up the idea of whether or not we'd put snow tires on the car in the winter was laughable. Of course we did. We didn't just get snow tires, we had studded tires (which sadly are illegal in most of Ontario where I now live). We'd have been foolish not to put winter tires of some sort on our car when I was a kid because we lived in a very rural area. I've seen snow drifts as tall as our single level house and we consistently had several feet of snow for the entire winter. Now I'm not an automotive expert (ha! just ask my boyfriend how often I drive) but I have no problems stating that I think that everyone who drives in snow and ice should have winter tires.
Why is that I think everyone should have winter tires? They are designed to work best in snow and ice. The rubber in winter tires is slightly different than those in all-season tires and where an all-season tire will start to stiffen in cold weather and ice while a winter tire stays pliable allowing it to maneuver better. Basically it's winter tires for the win when it comes to gripping the road. Wheels.ca goes into why you want winter tires and Canadian Driver tested a bunch of them for you. Science is great and all but I put it into Sassymonkey terms - when I look for a pair of winter boots I'm not buying ones with no grip or wimpy grips. Those really, really cute Kenneth Cole boots with the soles smoother than a babies bottom? They're staying in the closet until spring. I need winter boots that keep me from falling on my behind (I also want them to look nice but that's a whole other kind of blog post). Is seems that Driving.ca is with me on the shoe comparison.
The best way of thinking about the differences between a winter tire and an all-season tire is to take a look at your footwear. Most would not venture out on to a snow-covered sidewalk wearing leather-soled dress shoes, but that's exactly what happens when the car is driven while "wearing" all-season tires.
Does everyone need to have winter tires? Not all of the time no. I've heard many people argue that they rarely drive in the winter and when they do they go out when conditions are ideal. Those of us that live in cold climates never know what weather Mother Nature is going to throw at us. We might only get a small amount of snow this year or maybe like last year we'll have another record breaking snowfall year. (Just please, please, please not another ice storm.) Vancouver has even been experiencing a bit of a winter wonderland as Collen Anderson points out while she compares Calgary snow to Vancouver snow.
That was a good memory and even if the snow stayed, it was crunchy and you could get a grip on it, whether in boots or a car, and you could build snowmen and igloos (Yes, we built an igloo once, how fun was that?). Vancouver on the other hand, has the majority of drivers not used to driving in snow. And our cars don’t have snow tires. And the snow becomes this wet sludge that melts through the most waterproof boots and is slippery for any sort of tires. I hate it, a lot.
People probably do not "need" snow tires all the time. Maybe there are even people who do not need them 98% of the time but there's always that 2% of the time when they have to go out when the conditions are not ideal. I tend to think of snow tires a bit like I think of smoke detectors. Most of the smoke detectors that have been in places that I live annoy the heck out of me and I consider them to be pretty useless, not to mention ugly, ceiling accessories. I had one that screamed every time I opened the oven door and another every time I showered. Generally speaking the chances of me needing a smoke detector are pretty low but when I need it, I really need it. Winter tires are a car's equivalent of a smoke detector - when you need them, you really need them.
Apparently the government of Quebec agrees with me. This year they made winter tires mandatory by law between December 15 and March 15 of each
