Tired of Bad Driving
Perhaps you heard that snow tires are now mandatory in Quebec. It’s the first province to require all vehicles to be equipped with a full set of winter tires.
I’ve changed my tune on the winter tire issue. Personally, I use all-seasons, four-wheel drive and common sense to get me around in the winter. But if it would help my fellow motorists drive a little better and safer, I’d be on board with a winter tire law here.
I was snowed in to the west of Toronto by the big storm last weekend and drove back on the 401 Monday morning. The drive was okay until about Kitchener when snowsqualls reduced visibility and slowed traffic to a crawl of about 40 km/hr for about the next hour. I didn’t really care! In those conditions, while passing by cars spun out in both ditches, the goal is merely to get home alive, no matter how long it takes.
But not everyone shares my perspective! One driver in particular, driving with obviously bald tires, slipped and slid in the left lane, attempting to do the impossible: pass everyone else. Where he thought he could go, I have no idea, because all he did was make the rest of us more nervous than we already were as he crept into our lanes. Then when we rounded a curve and could see the reason for the slowdown - a conga line of snowploughs - it became apparent that drivers behind the ploughs were trying hard to pass them too!
You can’t legislate common sense or smarts. But snow tires might help make those not-so-smart drivers stick to the road a little better. If it’s going to help, I’ll get back onto the snow tire train and the early winter ritual of getting them changed. All for the greater good!
December 25th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Snow tires for those in Toronto & the GTA aren’t a necessity. If the province wanted to legislate them, they should only be required north of Barrie, which gets the snowfall to justify them.
Windsor to Toronto doesn’t get enough snow, especially now with global warming, to justify the expense.