Studded Tires Debated

State Sen. Mike Heavey, D-Seattle, is renewing one of the Washington Legislature’s oldest debates with a bill banning the sale of snow tires with heavy steel studs.

Senate Bill 5250 and its companion, House Bill 1311, would allow the sale of only lightweight studs cased in plastic or aluminum after Jan. 1, 1998. Motorists still would be able to use their old studded tires without penalty.

The bills are modeled after an Oregon law that took effect this winter. Already, one major tire chain, Les Schwab Tire Centers, has discontinued the sale of heavy steel studs at all its stores and moved entirely to aluminum.

It’s a technological advance that could resolve one of the Legislature’s classic East-versus-West debates. Ever since studded snow tires became legal for winter driving in Washington in 1969, lawmakers from the rainy West Side have been trying to get them off the road. And lawmakers from snowy Eastern Washington have said that if you want to take their tires away, you’ll have to pry them from their cold, dead fingers.

One year, Heavey tried to find a middle ground: He introduced a failed bill that would have required motorists to change tires at Snoqualmie Pass.

“What you have, particularly among Eastern Washington lawmakers, is a sense that if you try to pass anything dealing with studded tires, it’s like voting against motherhood and apple pie, and voting for taxes,” Heavey said.

For all the traction studded tires provide on snowy roads, they do plenty of damage. Over the course of 30,000 miles, a single studded tire removes one-half to three-quarters of a ton of pavement, according to an old Senate Transportation Committee report. And it costs $8 to $15 to repair the damage caused by a single tire. Studies done in Europe and Scandinavia show studs with lightweight casings can reduce road wear by as much as 50 percent.

State Rep. Bill Grant, D-Walla Walla, is one of the lawmakers who have done their best to kill studded tire legislation over the years. One time, he recalls, a studded-tire ban was due for a vote on the House floor. But it snowed in Olympia that day, and the Legislature suddenly forgot to bring it up.

As long as he can keep the set of studded tires on his car, Grant says the proposal could end “a hundred years of bickering.”

Grant said, “In the old days, people used to put cleats on horseshoes. So I can’t see what’s wrong with putting them on tires.”