It seems that the use of studded tires has been a perennial hot topic in Oregon. And the debate has been renewed.
The consumer columnist for The Oregonian, Joseph Rose, recently wrote about how “a citizen activist” in the state this summer plans to rev up a campaign to get a studded-tire ban on the 2012 ballot in Oregon. http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2010/04/anti-studded_tires_campaign_la.html
And this initiative already has a website, http://www.banstuddedtires.com/ , up for its campaign.
The activist pushing for the anti-stud ban is Jeff Bernards, who is like Don Quixote in his quest to “save Oregon’s roads and budgets from senseless waste.” But it’s apparently been a tough sell. The state Legislature has been rejecting passing such a ban since 1974.
The anti-tire stud group and Rose maintain that the studs do $40 million in damage annually to the state’s roads,
Another Oregon columnist, Patrick Emerson of The Oregon Business Report, seemed amused about the brouhaha. http://oregonbusinessreport.com/2010/05/debated-renewed-over-studded-tire-ban-tax/
Both Wisconsin and Minnesota ban studded tires, according to Emerson, who spent many years living in Wisconsin.
In the case of Oregon, he cited one economist’s suggestion, which is to add a tax to studded tires to pay to repair the damage they do to roads.
But we liked the comment that one man, who is against the stud-ban, put on Emerson’s blog.
“What’s the cost of driving up 99E along the river from Oregon City to Canby, spinning out on the ice and getting killed?” Matthew asked.
We’re with him.
Jeff Bernards says:
If your need studded tires are needed driving up 99, you should require that everyone put on studded tires, because others without studs are going to slide into you. West of the Cascades only 10% of drivers use studs, check the roads, they’ve become more dangerous year round because of studded tires. Less than 50% use them east of the Cascades, how did everyone else seem to get to work? Try studdless snow tires, better in snow and 90% as effective as studs on ice, which is only 1% of driving conditions.
5th May 2010 at 10:24 pm
Marty Lurvey says:
I was looking for an exact passage date for the ban in Wisconsin on studded tires and ran across your article. My best guess is the 1972 to 1973 timeframe for Wisconsin. As a young drive in Wisconsin at that time, I had purchased a set of studded snow tires which I was only able to use for one winter season. When the ban was passed, I removed the studs with a diagonal cutter, and continued using the snow tires. What you would be interested in is that the use of studded tires destroyed the concrete freeway road surfaces, especially in Milwaukee County after several years. The studs chewed away the top (smooth) concrete surface leaving all the stones sticking out. This made the freeway travel very rough on those roadways. But worse than that, when the surface was wet, driving on wet rocks proved to be far worse than anything else. There is not much traction driving on wet, round stones. What happened next, is that people learned to slow down more on freeways in bad winter driving conditions as might be expected. Later, in 1975, all these roadways were resurfaced with a blacktop layer which restored the smooth riding condition. If you want cost numbers, start by contacting the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. They have the jurisdiction on all the interstate roadways, I believe.
5th May 2010 at 10:04 am