Tireless Service Drivers Rush To Get Tires Removed

Washington residents who didn’t beat the deadline for removing studded tires found it was no joke getting the job done Monday.

“Right now, we’ve got probably about 30 to 35 cars in line, and a five-hour wait,” Mark Webb, owner of Perfection Tire and Automotive in the Spokane Valley, said at midday.

“Our phone’s been ringing pretty much steady,” said Steve Goulding, manager of Divine’s Auto Service on the South Hill.

Preferred by jittery drivers for negotiating icy roads, studded tires are legal in Washington from Nov. 1 to March 31 each year. They are legal in Idaho until April 16.

The steel studs are outlawed the rest of the year because they tear up dry pavement. In fact, when the state Department of Transportation resurfaced a portion of Interstate 90 last year, engineers said studded tires had cut the life of the old surface in half.

The tires were legalized in Washington in 1969. Several times since then, the Legislature has considered banning them. Each attempt has failed.

The ticket for using studs after the deadline is $70, making April 1 the second busiest day of the year at tire stores.

“The first snowfall is the busiest day,” said Webb. That’s when customers usually rush to his store to have the studded tires installed.

Denny Hall spent the better part of Monday trying to get the tires removed from his Oldsmobile Silhouette mini-van.

“I brought it in at 8:30 this morning and I was told to return at 12:30,” said Hall, as he sat in the Perfection waiting room, 40 minutes after the appointment time. “I’m still waiting.”

Hall said he had to drive over Snoqualmie Pass over the weekend and didn’t want to remove the studded tires until the crossing was behind him.

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