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Show Studded Tire Value Considered as Winter Is Here In January of 1972 the Utah State Department of Highways published a handout titled "What Value Studded Tires?" This handout presented information that was slanted toward justifying justify-ing the State Road Commission's Commis-sion's ban on studded snow tires for Utah registered cars. A close look at the handout raises some questions that should be answered for Utah's "high country" residents before they are really expected to whole-heartedly endorse the Road Commission's decision. A table presented information on the percent of time that various pavement surface conditions con-ditions exist between October and April, and showed which type of tire was "recommended" (although who "recommended" the tire type was not mentioned). mention-ed). This information was qualified qual-ified with the statement "The conditions are those existing along the Wasatch Front in our state which has the greatest part of the population in the state and therefore, the largest traffic traf-fic densities." As regarding studded tires, the table "recommended" "rec-ommended" them for use only on 'glare ice" and further indicated in-dicated that glare ice was only present for one percent of the time. into the pavement" didn't wear away (or fill with rubber, grease or, in the winter, ice)? Or, is it more likely that all of these "hazards" that are beingblamed on studded snow tires have been with us for years (maybe not to quite the degree that studs produce, let's be honest) and will continue to be with us whether or not the ban on studded stud-ded snow tires is applied? Further, the handout informs us, "Extensive studies made show that studded tires require greater stopping distances on pavement conditions such as slush, packed snow (how packed?), pack-ed?), and wet concrete or asphalt, as-phalt, which represent about 99 of the day miles of winter road conditions, with shorter stopping distances occurring only on glare ice which obtains only 1.1 of the day's miles." This brings us back to an earlier question-does this 1.1 percent figure really apply to city streets and county roads out of the Wasatch Front Counties? Coun-ties? These streets and roads, after alj, are the ones on which we in the "out -back" do most of our driving. Also, all tires require greater stopping distances dis-tances on these sort of pavement pave-ment conditions. The operative, question pne that is not ans- the 11. 2 percent of all accidents that occur with snow or ice conditions? No doubt they will be less in money than the figure for highway repair but how about the cost in pain and grief to those injured or the families affected by those killed in accidents ac-cidents that studs could have helped to prevent? In closing their handout the Highway Department asks: "Is it in the best interest to use money for this type of maintenance, main-tenance, or is it to the best public interest to put these funds to develop better and safer highways?" Ask yourself, your-self, is this really the only choice of how this money is spent? Is the estimate of expenses ex-penses for "stud damage" that we have been given $4,000,000 each and every year ($40 million mil-lion in 10 years) an accurate estimate of additional expense caused solely by those Utah registered reg-istered cars driving with studded stud-ded tires? (After all, the ban on studded tires does not apply to out-of-state cars, nor could it be even considered for a minute that out-of-state motorists motor-ists be required to have their, tires changed for the portion of their trips that would take- them through our State.) if you can honestly feel that uie iniormation presented shows that the studded tire ban has been ordered after careful care-ful and complete evaluation and after considering the needs of all of Utah's motorists, not just the ones who live on the Wasatch F r o n t then, by all . means, support the ban. However, How-ever, if you feel that we motorists motor-ists in the rural counties would . be able to continue to benefit by using studded tires and if you believe that we should continue con-tinue to be allowed to use them -write to your representative in the State Legislature, and to the Utah Road Commission, and ask for re-consideration of this measure. It's your life-and the lives of your loved ones that's at stake. Another point one I missed at first if 11.2 of all accidents occur during 6 of the time -while the other 88.8 of the accidents are in the remaining 94, when do you most need protection? wered by the handout is "how. much greater distance than regular reg-ular or unstudded snow tires do. the studded tires require to stop?" This information should ;be presented in feet, at different speeds, not as a percentage, so that it is easily understood by the average driver. The Highway Department es- timated that the cost of damage to pavements over a ten year period, through the use of studs in tires, "will approximate $40 million, while the studded tire industry estimates that, with a modified stud, this can be reduced re-duced to $20 million." Will studded stud-ded tires really do $4 million additional damage to our highways high-ways in Utah each year? By additional ad-ditional I mean above the damage dam-age that will be done by the sand and salt that is already required by the ton each year. And, while we are on the subject of costs, does anybody know what the lost man-hour cost will be for the people who will no longer have the 100 better starting traction that studs provide pro-vide a figure that even the Highway Department recognizes recog-nizes as accurate? How about' the costs that will be added to This brings up two questions: First, how does this figure of one percent of the time for glare ice, obviously an "average" "aver-age" figure, compare with either last winter or this one? Second, how does this percentage percent-age apply to County roads and City streets where the traffic traf-fic levels and snow removal effort are considerably less than along Interstate and other Major State Highways especially espec-ially in counties such as Morgan, Mor-gan, Rich, Summit, etc? The Highway Department's handout goes on to say that studded stud-ded tires "can actually create hazardous driving conditions by; A. Wearing ruts in wheel tracts on pavement. B. Accelerating Accel-erating the wearing off of the lane markers for traffic control. con-trol. Most of the lane markings show s igns of this wear. C. Wearing out of the skid resist -ent surface texture built into the pavement. Really! What have you observed, in the years you drove before studded snow tires were available here in the United States (like radial tires, they were developed in Europe and then adopted here), relative to the "hazardous" conditions caused by studdedtires? Before studded tires did you notice that: A. There were never any ruts in the wheel tracks on our highways? high-ways? B. The lane markers were never worn down and didn't need to be redone at this time of year? C. That the. "skid resistant surface texture built |