We’ve never had winter tires, but we’re considering buying some this year because we want to drive to Victoria to visit my son, his wife and our newborn granddaughter for Christmas. We’ve never driven there in the winter before. We had always understood that British Columbia requires winter tires in the mountains. But I Googled it and it looks like the requirement is either for winter tires or tires with an M+S [mud and snow] symbol. Are those considered all-season or winter tires? Does that means we don’t legally need winter tires for this trip? – Sandra, Devon, Alta.
You can legally get away with most all-season tires on British Columbia roads. But, for safer winter driving, you should probably get a grip, police said.
“I would highly recommend dedicated winter tires on mountain roads,” RCMP Constable Mike Moore, a spokesman for B.C. Highway Patrol, said in an e-mail. “Don’t compromise when it comes to protecting you and your family.”
While Quebec is the only province that requires nearly all drivers to have winter tires, B.C. requires winter tires or all-seasons with the M+S symbol on most highways from Oct. 1 to April 30.
Winter versus all-season tires
Winter tires, which have a mountain snowflake symbol, have treads that help with traction in snow and on ice. But that’s not their only advantage over all-seasons. You’ll see the real difference when the rubber hits the road.
Winter tires are made of rubber that stays softer on cold roads. That provides better grip, which means better braking and handling.
All-seasons are made of rubber that starts to get stiff, like a hockey puck, when it’s colder than 7 degrees Celsius. So, they don’t stick to cold roads nearly as well.
According to the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, an Ottawa-based not-for-profit, a car travelling at 16 kilometres an hour with winter tires needs 6.4 metres to stop on an icy road compared with 12.1 metres for a car with all-season tires.
While most all-season tires have the M+S symbol, winter tires outperform them in winter conditions in Consumer Reports tests. But Consumer Reports tests also show that winter tires don’t stop as well as all-seasons on wet roads, so you should take them off in the spring.
All-weather tires are a compromise
Potentially adding to any confusion, manufacturers also make all-weather tires, which have a harder rubber than winter tires and are meant to stay on all year. They also have the mountain snowflake symbol.
Consumer Reports says most all-weather tires don’t perform as well as winter tires in the winter or as well as all-seasons in the summer.
So, does switching to winter tires from all-seasons mean fewer winter crashes?
Most provinces don’t track whether a car is equipped with winter tires or all-seasons when it gets into a crash.
“The best evidence we have comes from Quebec,” said Lewis Smith, a manager with the Canada Safety Council, an Ottawa-based not-for-profit. “In the immediate aftermath of [the 2008 rule requiring winter tires], road fatalities and serious injuries per year during the winter were reduced.”
It’s not clear whether requiring winter tires was the only cause for the drop – from an average of 822 people killed or seriously injured per winter in the five winters before the mandate to an average of 523 per winter in the two winters after – but it points to a “net safety benefit” for winter tires, Smith said.
“Anywhere where the [temperature] drops below 7 degrees Celsius will see the benefits of added traction and shorter braking time,” Smith said. “There are some areas of Canada where the safety benefits are minimal due to the climate – for instance, a person living in Victoria, B.C., may not see the same return on investment as someone living in Northern Ontario.”
A recent survey by the Tire and Rubber Association of Canada, a Toronto-based tire industry association, found that outside Quebec, 71 per cent of respondents said they have winter tires.
Winter tire use was highest, at 94 per cent, in the Maritimes. It was lowest, at 64 per cent, in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Among the findings, 81 per cent of winter tire owners surveyed said they believe that winter tires saved them from losing control or getting into a crash.
Of those who said they don’t have winter tires, 63 per cent said it was because all-seasons are good enough.
Tread cautiously
In British Columbia, whether you have winter tires or all-seasons with M+S, they must legally have a tread depth of at least 3.5 millimetres.
“I have been to a great many winter crashes on the highways and one of the first things that I look at are the tires,” Moore said. “All too often, either the type of tire or tread [depth] of the tire is inadequate and ended up being a contributing factor.”
It’s a good idea to check your treads periodically. As the rubber in tires wears, the treads get shallower – and tires lose traction.
Transport Canada says that tires worn to a four-millimetre depth – about half the tread depth of new winter tires – aren’t safe on winter roads.
Even though winter tires improve braking distance by nearly half on icy roads, they won’t let you beat the laws of physics entirely – so all the rules of winter driving still apply.
You should leave plenty of room between your car and the car in front of you in case the car ahead needs to brake suddenly, Moore said.
Also, if you’re going the posted speed limit on winter roads, you’re going too fast, he said.
“Just because highway signage indicates a speed limit, keep in mind that this is usually just the maximum speed limit under ideal highway conditions,” Moore said. “Adjust your speed accordingly to the prevailing road and weather conditions.”
You should also check weather conditions before you leave and make sure you have food, water and blankets in your vehicle in case you get stuck along the way – some B.C. mountain highways, including the Coquihalla, can be closed for hours in the winter because of snowstorms, avalanches or serious collisions.
“Weather conditions when driving through mountain passes can be very unpredictable and can change suddenly,” Moore said. “A little preparation goes a long way.”
Have a driving question? Send it to globedrive@globeandmail.com and put ‘Driving Concerns’ in your subject line. Emails without the correct subject line may not be answered. Canada’s a big place, so let us know where you are so we can find the answer for your city and province.
Jason Tchir