Spokesman-Review Letters to the Editor
Hands off studded tires
Not all of us can afford your gas-guzzling SUVs and four-wheel drive vehicles. Or expensive all-weather tires. Studded tires give me more confidence when driving in snow. They aren’t only good for icy conditions. They are a great help in deep snow. Don’t try to tell me they’re not. I’ve driven a lot more years than you have with and without studded tires.
My tax dollars pay for the roads too, and I say leave the studded tires alone. And don’t try assessing me a fee. I have a right to use them. Get all the 18-wheelers and huge trucks carrying heavy equipment off the roads first. You can’t convince me they aren’t causing damage to the roads.
And if the DOT would use better material fixing potholes, they might actually stay fixed. The two to three months studded tires are on isn’t what is causing the damage to our streets. So leave us alone. Studded tires provide a peace of mind for those of us who don’t exactly love driving in snow.
Carolyn Jacobsen
Greenacres
Is Ms. Jacobsen a little protective of her studded tires or is it just me? She has a point about 18 wheelers causing damage, as do buses, but we can't just take them off the roads. How would we get groceries to the stores, or gas to the gas stations and oil to the homes of people who heat with it? We can't get by without trucks delivering the goods we need but we can make it without studs.
Hands off studded tires
Not all of us can afford your gas-guzzling SUVs and four-wheel drive vehicles. Or expensive all-weather tires. Studded tires give me more confidence when driving in snow. They aren’t only good for icy conditions. They are a great help in deep snow. Don’t try to tell me they’re not. I’ve driven a lot more years than you have with and without studded tires.
My tax dollars pay for the roads too, and I say leave the studded tires alone. And don’t try assessing me a fee. I have a right to use them. Get all the 18-wheelers and huge trucks carrying heavy equipment off the roads first. You can’t convince me they aren’t causing damage to the roads.
And if the DOT would use better material fixing potholes, they might actually stay fixed. The two to three months studded tires are on isn’t what is causing the damage to our streets. So leave us alone. Studded tires provide a peace of mind for those of us who don’t exactly love driving in snow.
Carolyn Jacobsen
Greenacres
Is Ms. Jacobsen a little protective of her studded tires or is it just me? She has a point about 18 wheelers causing damage, as do buses, but we can't just take them off the roads. How would we get groceries to the stores, or gas to the gas stations and oil to the homes of people who heat with it? We can't get by without trucks delivering the goods we need but we can make it without studs.
4 comments:
I can't help but chime in... Studded tires damage the road surface, scratching it away. Trucks beat down on the road structure, causing damage in a different way.
Engineers can design structural improvements, but concrete and asphalt will never be stronger than those millions of little metal gouges.
Glad you did, and made the clarification. Obviously I'm no engineer ;) I'm out in the public talking to folks all the time and in the winter studded tires come up a lot. This gives me some detailed info to use against them, whereas before I knew that they damaged the roads and caused ruts but not specifically HOW they caused damage (scratching away the surface). Thanks for the comment.
I drive a small four-door front-wheel-drive sedan with decent all-weather tires and have done so since I was fourteen years old. You can get around just fine without studded snow tires, although the die-hards will argue against all of the studies until they're blue in the face.
Here's an easy demonstration for someone who insists that studded snow tires aren't responsible for road damage: Park the car on a decent piece of concrete or asphalt. Start the engine and turn the wheel back and forth a couple of times. Now back up and look where the wheel was sitting.
If you pay attention, you'll see existing marks in parking lots from studded tires.
If you want the best effect, demonstrate this while the car is parked in the subject's garage. The marks show up better on their garage floor.
Ha! Love the garage floor idea. I've been arguing with my parents about studded tires for a couple years now and they're VERY picky about their garage floor. Wouldn't let me park in the garage when I lived at home because I had an oil leak. Think I'm going to try this on them. Thanks for the idea :)
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