Should snow tyres be a legal requirement?

PMKeates said:
Ok so 5% of the time we drive around in snow. About 4 years of someone's life is spent travelling in snowy conditions - in fact, more time than is spent going to the toilet. Should we not bother with toilet paper, or toilet flushes? :p

We do things to improve our quality of life/ensure our safety/ensure our productivity for things that occupy far far less than 5% of our lifetimes, yet we ignore provisions for snowy conditions? Interesting.
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So you already have yours fitted?
 
No, the climate is too varied across the country.

I would like day-running lights though.
Silver cars in this weather without lights = RAGE.
 
[TW]Fox;17916767 said:
So you already have yours fitted?
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I'm just saying it's interesting and the fact 'it's a short period of time' isn't really true at all. Besides, as most people don't bother, the roads turn to chaos and you can't go anywhere anyway. If it were legislated, it wouldn't be so bad for everyone.
 
Dont forget we've only had snow over the last two years, when was it this bad before that? The year before I remember it being bad for ice but there was no snow what so ever, or the year before, or the year before that as far as I can recall.
 
Joshy said:
Hasn't it been 3 years on the trot now?

I'm not implying that we've got snow fall comparable to the Alps but it's not THAT irregular.
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im not going to buy (and pay to have changed) a different set of tyres for the 10 days a year there is any snow on the roads (in oxfordshire)
 
Seems a lot of people are thinking only about tyre for snow and not tyres for winter. We do have, every year, a winter. And every winter it gets cold which is where winter tyres excel.

We've not got any yet but i'll probably invest in at least one set for the wifes car for next year as she is out in the car all day. She only has steels anyway so i'll just get another set with the tyres and keep them in the shed out of the way
 
I'm generally against increasing legislation in any way, but some element of mandatory foul-weather training wouldn't go amiss.

Granted an hour or two whizzing about on a skid pan isn't going to turn you into a Finnish rally champion, but it might give people a better appreciation of just how suddenly a few tons of metal travelling at speed might bugger up your day when the tyres all let go.
 
[TW]Fox;17917939 said:
This is an interesting read:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11897825

It also points out how prior to the snowfall we've had these last 2 years, we had 7 consecutive mild winters - 7 years of little to no snow or low temperatures. That does a lot to shape opinion.
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We have only ever had one winter with significant snow where I have lived which was last year.

Previously there were a couple of winters where they was an inch or two of snow but it passed within a day or two.

No reason to panic and buy chains/winter tyres imo.

All the main roads were gritted fine last year after a couple of days and I just broke up all the ice/snow outside my house so no numpty slid into my cars/van when they couldn't stop.
 
I don't think they should be a legal requirement, but perhaps "advised" via advertising or similar. Certainly would help with the snow we've had here (East Lothian- easily getting on 2 feet now)
 
The main thing would be to learn from this year's mistakes.


Promoting them properly would be a good idea. Whoever doesn't think they aren't worth it in snow/slush/ice has probably never driven a car with winter tyres. Especially since there's hills everywhere. Do not get me wrong, I know that your car won't be on rails if you fit winter tyres. But the difference in grip is substantial.

The problem is that from what I have noticed in England is that a bit of snow is enough to shut everything down and stay at home. Yaaay free day. And it was OK because it was once a year only.

Well guess what, looks like it is going to start going to be a more regular occurence than in the past, thousands of people staying at home for weeks does not seem like a bright idea especially in the current economic climate.

Another thing would be to start importing them in decent quantities so that I don't pay more for a pair of Nankangs or Linglong winter tyres than for a pair of eagle f1s or PS3s. :(


Depends on how you define "legal requirement". It would be better to enforce a "suitable for conditions" policy. IF the police see you sliding all over ice/snow, they should be free to stop you and impose adequate fines. However, this needs to be done after 2-3 years of proper promoting and raising people's awareness regarding the usage of winter tyres.
 
this reminds me of that news report, the reporter was interviewing people who were stuck on ice and snow in their cars, they came to one guy, a polish guys, said "you must be used to these conditions?" he said "yes i am, but your roads are not ready" and started pointing at the road like a mad man lol


He is right, our cars would be perfectly adequate if the councils could maintain the roads.
 
[TW]Fox;17917939 said:
This is an interesting read:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11897825

It also points out how prior to the snowfall we've had these last 2 years, we had 7 consecutive mild winters - 7 years of little to no snow or low temperatures. That does a lot to shape opinion.
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yeah exactly.

Id buy winter tyres+wheels this year, but knowing my luck we would go another 7 years without any snow. Whats the point? After all Global warming means this maybe the last time we see snow? ;)
 
acemastr said:
this reminds me of that news report, the reporter was interviewing people who were stuck on ice and snow in their cars, they came to one guy, a polish guys, said "you must be used to these conditions?" he said "yes i am, but your roads are not ready" and started pointing at the road like a mad man lol


He is right, our cars would be perfectly adequate if the councils could maintain the roads.
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Evidently never been to Poland then, the general condition of most of the roads is worse than ours.

They are however, more used to regular snow fall (esp. in the south of the country) so they are more prepared...
 
Just came back from Newcastle to South Shields, the difference between councils is amazing. Saw 2 gritting trucks between newcastle and gateshead, plowing the snow to the sides of the road, the main routes between the arena and heworth were clear. The roads got steadily worse and worse between there and South Shields. South Tyneside council are very very bad, they clearly have no resources to deal with these conditions. The roads were like ice rinks, the snow was left.
I have been to Newcastle twice in 3 days, and each time I saw teams of workers clearing pavements by hand, with shovels and snow shovels. They cleared the paths in Gateshead, and the city centre. In Shields, nothing. The put a few clumps of grit on the paths, which turns it to slush. No effort has been made at all to even attempt to clear them. It says a lot tbh.
 
Stupid idea.

ITs a bit of snow, I dont see why anyone cares.

Ok, so some roads are closed and some kiddies dont get to go to school for a few days. Biiiiiiiig deal.

In other countries they have things closed and grinding to a halt too, but they just get on with it.

Why does everyone have to moan about it over here?

Its pathetic.
 
Given that Mr average doesn't care what tyre is on his car I don't think it would help, let's face the average motorist just sees them as a piece of rubber that fails an mot and needs replacing at qwik fit at the cheapest price possible
 
I wonder were I would stand if, on my normal road tyres (not particularly summer ones I don't think) and driving as safely as I was able, I slid out of control in heavy snow and wiped out a group of aids ridden orphans.

Would there be an argument for dangerous driving, or somesuch, purely because I was driving on unsuitable tyres?

I suppose it would need to be proven that the tyres were a major contributing factor? Which, if they were, it would be fairly easy to prove, assuming sufficient testing has been done by a government organisation, or tyre manufacturers or someone.
 
godinman said:
I wonder were I would stand if, on my normal road tyres (not particularly summer ones I don't think) and driving as safely as I was able, I slid out of control in heavy snow and wiped out a group of aids ridden orphans.

Would there be an argument for dangerous driving, or somesuch, purely because I was driving on unsuitable tyres?
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There would be an argument for it being your fault irrespective of tyres - in order to slide out of control and collide with something, you will have been travelling at a speed that was excessive for the conditions (The conditions being ice and summer tyres). You'd be blamed the same way if you had winter tyres, as well.
 
You should argue for a lower sentence on the grounds that they all had AIDS and thus were going to die soon anyway.

It would go across just as well as the argument you suggested.
 
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