February 24, 2009 in City

Studded tires not worth cost to state’s roads, senator says

But some Eastern Washington lawmakers say bill to ban them is a dangerous mistake

Richard Roesler Staff writer

Peter Geissinger, a mechanic with Perfection Tire and Auto Repair at 604 E. Second Ave., prepares to bag up snow tires that were removed from a car Monday. A bill has been introduced in the state legislature that would ban the sale or use of studded tires.
(Full-size photo)

OLYMPIA – To state Sen. Chris Marr, it’s a simple cost-benefit analysis.

The cost: an estimated $18.2 million a year in state road damage from metal tire studs hammering away at concrete pavement.

The benefit: better traction only during a relatively rare driving condition: a roadway slick with sheet ice. Washington drivers, according to the state Department of Transportation, encounter those conditions only about 1 percent of the time.

With Washington facing a $500 million transportation budget shortfall, Marr, D-Spokane, thinks it’s time to ban studs.

“Before, we could view it as a price we pay to accommodate people’s insecurities about not having their studs,” he said. “Can we afford to throw those dollars out the window?”

His Senate Bill 6066 would ban the sale or use of the tires. The co-sponsors include Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. Marr says he’s open to phasing out the use of the tires over several years to avoid penalizing people who just bought them.

Other Eastern Washington lawmakers say a ban would be a dangerous mistake.

“I’d invite Senator Marr to come visit me in January,” said Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda. “It’s a huge safety thing. I am not convinced that there’s any alternative that really works on ice.”

Maybe there’s a way to set up a geographic limit, Kretz said. He said he feels a little bad when driving around in Olympia, with his studded tires clicking away on roads that rarely see snow or ice.

“I am sympathetic,” he said. “There is a lot of damage done.”

According to legislative research, studded tire sales in Washington fell by half from 1997 to 2003. In 2003, the last year for which data was available, roughly 140,000 of the tires were sold in the state.

Marr’s not alone in proposing legislation to lessen the impact of studs on roads. State Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, wants to establish a $100 annual fee for each vehicle with studded tires. His bill is Senate Bill 5859.

To defuse the argument that the bill puts an undue hardship on Eastern Washington, Marr’s bill would also set up a $10 million account for grants to cities and counties wanting to repair ruts or other damage from studded tires. Since such damage is likely to be worse in Eastern Washington, the money would largely stay east of the Cascades.

Studded tires were banned in Washington until 1969, when lawmakers voted to allow their use year-round. By 1971, with nearly a third of all the cars in the state having studded tires, worried state officials got lawmakers to limit their use to between November 1 and April 1.

In 1977, as ruts worsened, the state Transportation Department issued a report saying that studded snow tires give drivers “about a 10 percent advantage over conventional tires” for stopping on glare ice and hard-packed snow. The rest of the time, the department said, there was no advantage. On wet asphalt, studs were worse.

For the past 25 years, state transportation officials have been trying to convince lawmakers to once again ban studded tires. After several failed attempts at a ban, lawmakers tried in 1991 and 1993 to pass a law charging a $25 tax on all studded tires. Later they proposed an annual “permit fee” of $8 per tire.

In 1994, lawmakers in the House tried to outlaw studded tires west of the Cascade Mountains unless it was snowing there. The bill died when the State Patrol said that it would be extremely difficult to enforce.

In recent years, lawmakers have repeatedly proposed a $15 fee on each studded tire, as well as shortening the five-month use period to three; all of which failed.

Despite that history, Marr said he’s confident the bill will get a hearing.

But will it pass?

“I think it’s a conversation we need to have,” he said.

If not, he said, the issue may be taken out of the hands of lawmakers. Western Washington voters would almost certainly back an immediate ban, Marr believes.

“You could put this up as a ballot measure and it would pass instantly,” he said.

Richard Roesler can be reached at (360) 664-2598 or richr@spokesman.com.

13 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

rawkmandale on February 24 at 12:21 a.m.
I have to agree - studded tires cost our highway budgets too much. People that need better traction should be willing to invest in the types of vehicles that can provide the abilty to navigate bad conditions, or purchase winter tires and an extra set of wheels. We should take responsibilty upon ourselves, and not expect government to pay for our needs. We've been doing that for about 40 years now, with disasterous results.

Studded tires must go.

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jenzspot on February 24 at 5:05 a.m.
I agree completely. With careful driving and a good set of all-season radials, driving in our winter climate can be done safely. Studded tires add very little extra traction and are often not needed on our streets. Drivers who frequently travel to ski resorts or across our passes should invest in a good set of tire chains.

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Doug Thompson on February 24 at 6:13 a.m.
Sen. Marr should also review the WSP chain law provisions. It seems that running truck chains on wet pavement instead of compact snow on mountain passes could save some damage also.

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philipgregory on February 24 at 8:39 a.m.
Absolutely!

And with moderate care front wheel drive vehicles will do fine. Rear wheel need plastic chains (snobootz)

However! The state needs to watch for black ice in Spokane. Dozens of accidents occured this winter that had nothing to do with traction - I was driving less than 40 mph in 4-wheel drive when I hit black ice and spun out into the ditch (luckily without hitting anyone or thing). The tow truck operator said this spot in notorious for black ice. He said the previous day he had pulled 6 cars out of the ditch when the hit the ice. And, the state does NOTHING! (And, by the way, the state cop acted like he was desperate to give me some kind of ticket, asking if I was texting, eating, wearing my glasses, etc. When he found nothing wrong he gave me a $175 ticket for “…driving with wheels off the roadway.” which the local prosecutor through out.

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Mr. Natural on February 24 at 3:53 p.m.
I've been driving throughout Eastern Washington for over 35 years at a minimum 1000 miles per month. I have never owned a set of studded tires in all that time nor have I ever found an occasion to need them, even when I go steelheading on frozen frosty foggy mornings. If in fact they are degrading the already lousy roads we have around here then lets at least take a few years off from using studs to see what happens.

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wheels270 on February 24 at 7:31 p.m.
It's time to grow up and throw away naive ways. Studs are rarely useful, they cause very expensive damage to “our” roadways, and they are not needed. Common sense, such as winter tires, tire siping, using chains in extreme conditions, and driving slower and more defensively can save us a fortune.I've lived in eastern Washington all of my life and have only used studded tires for one season. I've had close calls twice, once with studs and once with all season radials. Both were caused by driving too fast for conditions.The ruts caused by the studded tires have surely caused more accidents than they have avoided..

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Jimplus2 on February 26 at 10:58 a.m.
When the weather gets like it was in December, it really does not matter if you have studs or not. The bigger problem I had is high centering on many of the roadways due to the snow depth being quite deep. And studs are not going to help with that condition. It has been proven that the coefficiency of friction is less with studded tires on dry pavement than non-studded tires. Therefore, they are more dangerous to use more often than what benefit you might obtain. And with the de-icing, and sanding programs that the city and county uses, there are not that many issues with glaring ice, which is the only advantage that studded tires have.
I was riding my motorcycle on I-90 last summer, and it was a little frightening to feel the wheels being pulled into the ruts along that road, The ruts were especially bad around the Thor St exit to around the Sprague Ave exit, which have been caused by the studded tires. This, just to name one of many areas around Spokane that have ruts in the roadbeds, which all of us are having to pay for to repair.
It all comes down to using ordinary common sense when driving on snow covered slippery roads. SLOW DOWN! Too many people put too much confidence in their studded tires, and drive too fast for the conditions.

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