Quebec considers snow tire law

Good point. The winters are better on snow and ice than all seasons, but crap on warm, dry pavement. Also, I know a couple of people who walk almost everywhere and drive maybe once a week, if that, for groceries. I'll bet there are many others out there like this. Should we really force such people to spend tiem and money switching to winter tires every winter when they drive so little? And that's not even going into the argument of the government legislating personal behaviours.

Thumbs down from me...

I bet you the tire manufacturers are behind this law. Wonder what dirty politician is having his back pocket padded to push this through.

Yep, by law we have to change to snow tires in Sweden by Dec. 1st ... there's talk of l the law being revised so the date would be earlier.

btw ... a huge population in Sweden ride bikes during the winter too !

I don`t think the problem is with the tires, its the people, the drivers.
Last winter was the first time I have used winter tires, and the only difference I noticed was when accelerating on a green light/stop sign.

If people would slow down, and follow at a safe distance there would be less accidents.

Yep! All that snow tires do is give poor drivers a false sense of security and save a few litres of gas because of reduced slippage when starting off from a stop.

My parents, my brother, and my sister put on snow tires every winter. Not sure how I stand on this.

You say drivers should slow down... what planet do you live on? That will never happen

I have only recently finally parked my '87 fire-chicken.

It is the poster-boy of the problem.

With it's original equipment wide-ovals it was a useless land-scud on anything but dry footing. It would get stuck in a 6" snow drift if it extended 6'.

The car cannot be ballasted to gain traction.
I ripped the tires off and acquired 14" Malabu rims and installed E all seasons on the front and D suburbanites on the rear and it became a bull-dozer.

I could safely drive in an ice-storm and slowly push through huge drifts. Slowly so I didn't pack the hood.

Too many cars are out there with too much tire. There is not enough PSI on the ground.

The biggest example of this is the CJ/TJ jeeps with their huge tires. Even in 4WD they are helpless, misguided missiles unsafe at any speed----even in rain.

The 8 years i drove either in Quebec or New Brunswick, it was always

with winter tires.. be crazy not to..

Maybe you could survive in the cities with all seasons, but outside,

forget it.

I think the law is a good idea.. driving in winter in Quebec is serious business.

I think you guys are missing the point about winter tires. Just like daytime running light, air bags, seat belts and shock absorbing bumpers, it's all about the safety.


The good winters that are on the market today will decrease stopping distance by 40%, have better grip for cornering and in most cases are ten times the quality of original equipment tires, even in the summer!

There is not much point in the tire manufacturers bribing the politicians because Quebecers are very car-smart and for the most part already buy quality European winters. I don't think Insurance companies are mor than likely the driving force behind this. I just hope that they offaer a discount for users. I am happy to push this because if Quebec passes it, hopefully Ontario will follow.

a snow tire law might have its benefits in a province like quebec , but its really up to the drivers to drive carefully during the winter . tires can only do so much ,

If the weather is bad enough you need to put on tire chains. Snow tires are fine in a light snow, but in anything serious you need chains.

Bottom line is, drivers need to check conditions as they leave their driveway/underground - drive a 20 - 30 pieds and étape on the brakes and the gas aussi- check the conditions and drive accordingly - really not rocket science if you live outside of la belle province who 'je me souviens' -colin de bin. . . .

No need for new bureaucracies staffed avec frankofiles seulement - just education.

Interesting! My '87 fire-chicken has been parked for a few years. I should get around to selling it. I was great in summer, but slid badly in winter. I had to shovel the back lane behind my garage all the way down to pavement. Otherwise I would get stuck. It created a lip in the packed snow either side of my property until a front-end loader scraped the back lane; probably someone complained. But if I didn't shovel, my car would either dig in or get stuck in the ruts.

When I lived in Toronto, a couple times after a blizzard traffic was ridiculously sparse on highway 401. I lived in North York but worked in Markham, drove backwards to most traffic. In the morning after a blizzard I would see one car on the horizon in front of me, one on the horizon behind. I had 4 lanes to myself. Good thing since the car drove at a 30° angle in deep snow. Seriously; imagine driving with the front-right corner leading. I needed at least 2 lanes to myself, good thing I had all 4.

If I tried to start moving in a snow drift 4" or more deep the rear end would slide straight to the right until the vehicle was at a 30° angle, then start moving forward. One time in a parking lot I hit a dumpster when the rear end moved sideways into it. Luckily the dent came out without leaving a scratch in the paint.

During summer the fire-chicken drove great. I could drive highway 401 in summer at 140 km/h with no trouble. Necessary when traffic often cruised at 120 km/h. The 400 class highways are built for 120 km/h, I have no idea why the posted speed limit is only 100. I put the petal to the metal once soon after I bought it; on the perimeter highway in Winnipeg in the middle of the night when no one was on the highway. It pegged out the speedometer, but judging by the distance from the last graduation to the peg and how much it accelerated after it pegged out, I drove at 163 km/h. At that speed steering got insanely sensitive; a small movement of the steering wheel would throw you to one side. But up to 140 km/h it drove smooth. Obviously I didn't have either of the V8 engines, or the sport suspension package. The point is it's a summer car.

I have an Aztek now with all wheel drive. I got tired of getting stuck in winter, this vehicle may not accelerate like a sports car but it never gets stuck in snow. It's a small SUV; actually Pontiac class it a Sport Recreational Vehicle. It's based on a minivan rather than a pickup truck. But it also gets better fuel economy than my fire-chicken. And room to haul stuff. I was able to pack camping and sporting equipment (at once) in my fire-chicken, but the SUV has plenty of room.

So how would winter tires perform when some streets are plowed and salted down to pavement, and others aren't? When would I put them on? The first real snow came this weekend, unusually late for Winnipeg. It's better to have good all seasons and just leave them on all the time.

chains are illegal in almost all of ontario, the only places where they are legal is northwestern ontario (yeah, we kick ass) and on dirt roads. they're great for control but they wreak havoc on pavement if there's not enough snow on the ground