Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Studded Tires Oked- A Week Early

The Washington State Department of Transportation says they're giving you a pass this year- it’s OK to start using studded tires now even though they normally aren't allowed until Nov. 1.

That's because the season’s first snow is falling in the Cascade and Olympic mountains. The department says that some of the higher Cascades passes such as Chinook or North Cascades could get up to 2 feet of snow.

However, if you're not driving across passes, the WSDOT asks that you wait another week to put studs on your car.

2 comments:

Charles said...

Why so early? A little slush on Snoqualmie? Slow down and you would not need the snow tires for another month or so.

SRTC Staff said...

I just looked at the live cameras from the passes and there's not even slush on them- just wet roadways. Of course, that doesn't mean there won't be later. But all in all, slowing down would be a better option considering that doesn't hurt our roadways like studs on bare asphalt in the lower regions does.


About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.