It is supposed to snow this weekend, so a couple of days ago I drove to the central Oregon Costco to have my all-weather tires replaced with snow tires. A lot of other people had the same idea so I got to go shopping for several hours while I waited. Walking through the parking lot from the Barnes & Noble to the Whole Foods, I met several cars that audibly had studded tires, and every time I did, I would get a little angry.
First used in the U.S. in the 1960s, studded tires were supposed to provide better traction on ice than all-weather tires. However, they actually provide worse traction in most other pavement conditions. Meanwhile, “traction tires” or snow tires, whose rubber is softer than all-weather tires, work as well as studded tires on ice but much better than studded tires in other conditions. Snow tires were once much more expensive than studded tires, but now are competitively priced.
