The provincial government is offside in its requirement that drivers in the Sea to Sky Corridor put on winter tires by Oct. 1.
Rather than this early date, the rule should apply starting in November, at earliest, when the temperatures really drop.
As all residents of Squamish likely know by now, on certain highways in B.C. – including on the Sea to Sky Highway –drivers are legally required to have winter tires from Oct. 1 to March 31.
Anyone caught driving the Sea to Sky without Mud and Snow (M+S) or mountain/snowflake tires with at least 3.5mm of tread will face fines of between $109 to $121.
To be clear, requiring winter tires for winter temperatures makes perfect sense. Just look at what happened in Germany when they made winter tires mandatory — collisions were cut in half. There were 6,033 personal-injury collisions in 2008 the year the law came into force in Germany, compared to 12,539 in 2005.
OK, so the tires work when it is cold out. The reason for this is that tires crafted for winter temperatures have more grip thanks to the compounds in the rubber.
Due to their composition, summer tires begin to harden when the temperature hit 7 C; all-season tires become stiff at about -10 C, while the rubber of winter tires remain flexible until -40 C, according to tire experts.
“Winter tires use vastly different rubber compounds to stay flexible,” said dedicated auto-journalist John Mahler in Wheels.ca, an online auto magazine.
But then why isn’t the Ministry of Transportation rule that winter tires are required when temperatures typically reach 7C, rather than making the rule hard and fast on Oct. 1?
If you look back at the historic temperature patterns, our region typically doesn’t drop below 10C in October.
By putting on winter tires too soon, the rubber that is meant to connect with much cooler temperatures wears much faster on the warmer pavement – the rubber blocks of the winter tires compress with the heat.
And this isn’t safe. Driving at 70km per hour on dry pavement with winter tires, it takes 2.1 metres further to come to a complete stop, according to tests done by the Canadian Automobile Association.
On warm and dry pavement, this flexible-by-design construction of winter tires can make stopping distances significantly longer, agrees Andrew Ling, of the Open Road Auto Group.
So the provincial rule of swapping out tires by Oct. 1, costs us the longevity of our expensive winter tires and may just be putting us at risk rather than protecting us as we travel the Sea to Sky this fall.
Time for a rethink on this rule.
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