Winter Tyres NOT Suitable for the UK....
Discussion
radio 4 just now had a replay of highlights of yesterdays parliamentary questions. Was half asleep but this part woke me up, other half heard it and is now confused about why I keep telling her to get some!
A female mp asked why more was not done to encourage the use of winter tyres as under 7 degrees summer tyres are not suitable.
minister replied "winter tyres are only suited to compact snow, with the few days of snow in the UK, winter tyres wear away quick and cause considerable damage to road surfaces"
will be on Iplayer later, came on at around 6.45 am, program Starts at 6 so 45 min in.
EDIT: Too add more detail from others in the thread so clearer
Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab): Abandoned cars and accidents add to the chaos. I understand that once the temperature goes below minus 7°, the tyres that we use on our cars are no longer appropriate and safe. Is the Secretary of State having discussions with car manufacturers and automobile organisations about encouraging people to change over to winter tyres, as they do on the continent?
Mr Hammond: We have looked at the issue, and in fact David Quarmby addressed it. The use of winter tyres—snow tyres or even studded tyres—and snow chains is appropriate where people drive for long periods through the winter on compacted snow; it is not appropriate in the situation, as in the UK, where snow is on the ground for relatively short periods. Winter tyres wear out very quickly on normal road surfaces and cause significant damage to those surfaces, so they would not be appropriate in the UK situation.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoda...
Email your views:
philip.hammond@dft.gsi.gov.uk
winterresiliencereview@dft.gsi.gov.uk
A female mp asked why more was not done to encourage the use of winter tyres as under 7 degrees summer tyres are not suitable.
minister replied "winter tyres are only suited to compact snow, with the few days of snow in the UK, winter tyres wear away quick and cause considerable damage to road surfaces"
will be on Iplayer later, came on at around 6.45 am, program Starts at 6 so 45 min in.
EDIT: Too add more detail from others in the thread so clearer
Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab): Abandoned cars and accidents add to the chaos. I understand that once the temperature goes below minus 7°, the tyres that we use on our cars are no longer appropriate and safe. Is the Secretary of State having discussions with car manufacturers and automobile organisations about encouraging people to change over to winter tyres, as they do on the continent?
Mr Hammond: We have looked at the issue, and in fact David Quarmby addressed it. The use of winter tyres—snow tyres or even studded tyres—and snow chains is appropriate where people drive for long periods through the winter on compacted snow; it is not appropriate in the situation, as in the UK, where snow is on the ground for relatively short periods. Winter tyres wear out very quickly on normal road surfaces and cause significant damage to those surfaces, so they would not be appropriate in the UK situation.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoda...
Email your views:
philip.hammond@dft.gsi.gov.uk
winterresiliencereview@dft.gsi.gov.uk
Edited by amir_j on Friday 3rd December 14:06
We keep forgetting that the past 2/3 winters have been freakishly bad our normal winters usually see the bad snow on high ground and more wide spread further north. While a winter tyre may be a lot better on snow or ice is it's performance that much better in very cold conditions? Also consider that policing compulsory winter tyres can't be done by camera and using a method such as where the fitter reports the fitting what happens about laid up cars or people who change the wheels over themselves?
Engineer1 said:
We keep forgetting that the past 2/3 winters have been freakishly bad our normal winters usually see the bad snow on high ground and more wide spread further north. While a winter tyre may be a lot better on snow or ice is it's performance that much better in very cold conditions? Also consider that policing compulsory winter tyres can't be done by camera and using a method such as where the fitter reports the fitting what happens about laid up cars or people who change the wheels over themselves?
Yes they are much better in cold conditions and no worse than cheap summer tyres when warmer.The policing of compulsory tyres works fine across Europe - have an accident your loses are not covered.
Get caught by police driving without then you get a fine.
Adopt the same as many EU countries - winter tyres can be used all year, summer tyres cannot.
re Policing: Every winter/festive period police forces across the country have Anti-Drink Driving campaigns where spot checks, random stops and (up here in Strathclyde anyway) check points where there are around 10 coppers in a layby and they pull in people at random for breathaliser checks. They seem to stop a LOT of drivers during this time and most of the time while you are being breathalised, another fed is checking over your car ie lights, tyres, insurance/reg check etc. So tyre checks are carried out already.
Obviously they don't stop/catch everyone, but then if winter tyres were made compulsory, I'd imagine it would be the sort of driver who doesn't bother with insurance that would run the risk of not having any fitted, so they'd either get caught or get away with it in the same manner as they already are.
Obviously they don't stop/catch everyone, but then if winter tyres were made compulsory, I'd imagine it would be the sort of driver who doesn't bother with insurance that would run the risk of not having any fitted, so they'd either get caught or get away with it in the same manner as they already are.
As much as I think compulsory winter tyres are a good idea, there are at least a couple of reasons why it wouldn't work.
At the moment everyone on the East coast has heavy snow whilst everyone on the West coast has sunshine, 30deg temps. and there's a shortage of ice cream, it'd be hard to convince those people that they really need winter tyres.
Also we've all seen the Motorway Police Camera Stop Interceptor type programmes, it seems that a great deal of people have enough trouble getting their heads around tax, inflating their tyres and driving without carrying class a drugs, how on earth are the mouth breathers going to understand why we need 'special tyres' when Taikisha needs an x-box this christmas? It'd be against their human rights or something.
At the moment everyone on the East coast has heavy snow whilst everyone on the West coast has sunshine, 30deg temps. and there's a shortage of ice cream, it'd be hard to convince those people that they really need winter tyres.
Also we've all seen the Motorway Police Camera Stop Interceptor type programmes, it seems that a great deal of people have enough trouble getting their heads around tax, inflating their tyres and driving without carrying class a drugs, how on earth are the mouth breathers going to understand why we need 'special tyres' when Taikisha needs an x-box this christmas? It'd be against their human rights or something.
DJFish said:
As much as I think compulsory winter tyres are a good idea, there are at least a couple of reasons why it wouldn't work.
At the moment everyone on the East coast has heavy snow whilst everyone on the West coast has sunshine, 30deg temps. and there's a shortage of ice cream, it'd be hard to convince those people that they really need winter tyres.
Also we've all seen the Motorway Police Camera Stop Interceptor type programmes, it seems that a great deal of people have enough trouble getting their heads around tax, inflating their tyres and driving without carrying class a drugs, how on earth are the mouth breathers going to understand why we need 'special tyres' when Taikisha needs an x-box this christmas? It'd be against their human rights or something.
Excellent!At the moment everyone on the East coast has heavy snow whilst everyone on the West coast has sunshine, 30deg temps. and there's a shortage of ice cream, it'd be hard to convince those people that they really need winter tyres.
Also we've all seen the Motorway Police Camera Stop Interceptor type programmes, it seems that a great deal of people have enough trouble getting their heads around tax, inflating their tyres and driving without carrying class a drugs, how on earth are the mouth breathers going to understand why we need 'special tyres' when Taikisha needs an x-box this christmas? It'd be against their human rights or something.
My take on it too.DJFish said:
As much as I think compulsory winter tyres are a good idea, there are at least a couple of reasons why it wouldn't work.
At the moment everyone on the East coast has heavy snow whilst everyone on the West coast has sunshine, 30deg temps. and there's a shortage of ice cream, it'd be hard to convince those people that they really need winter tyres.
Also we've all seen the Motorway Police Camera Stop Interceptor type programmes, it seems that a great deal of people have enough trouble getting their heads around tax, inflating their tyres and driving without carrying class a drugs, how on earth are the mouth breathers going to understand why we need 'special tyres' when Taikisha needs an x-box this christmas? It'd be against their human rights or something.
Gold At the moment everyone on the East coast has heavy snow whilst everyone on the West coast has sunshine, 30deg temps. and there's a shortage of ice cream, it'd be hard to convince those people that they really need winter tyres.
Also we've all seen the Motorway Police Camera Stop Interceptor type programmes, it seems that a great deal of people have enough trouble getting their heads around tax, inflating their tyres and driving without carrying class a drugs, how on earth are the mouth breathers going to understand why we need 'special tyres' when Taikisha needs an x-box this christmas? It'd be against their human rights or something.
amir_j said:
A female mp asked why more was not done to encourage the use of winter tyres as under 7 degrees summer tyres are not suitable.
minister replied "winter tyres are only suited to compact snow, with the few days of snow in the UK, winter tyres wear away quick and cause considerable damage to road surfaces"
Female MP completely correct, ministers reply absolute bminister replied "winter tyres are only suited to compact snow, with the few days of snow in the UK, winter tyres wear away quick and cause considerable damage to road surfaces"
ks!!! He's obviously never actually driven in wintry conditions or he is the pocket of a tyre manufacturer!!!What an idiot.........
Why not leave it to the drivers to decide what actions to take and weigh up the risks. If they have an accident in the winter and they are on summer tyres then there should be penalties if lack of winter tyres was found to be a contributory factor eg like running on bald tyres, or careless driving. Its a good starting point.
Maybe insurance companies will wise up and start adding clauses in their policies so they can weezel out of payouts..no need for new laws.
Drivers choice then. Drive or not drive in winter, use winter tyres or summer tyres.
....... but drive on summer tyres and stay out of accidents/highway obstruction or take the consequences for not using winter tyres when they would have helped avoid the situation.
Why not leave it to the drivers to decide what actions to take and weigh up the risks. If they have an accident in the winter and they are on summer tyres then there should be penalties if lack of winter tyres was found to be a contributory factor eg like running on bald tyres, or careless driving. Its a good starting point.
Maybe insurance companies will wise up and start adding clauses in their policies so they can weezel out of payouts..no need for new laws.
Drivers choice then. Drive or not drive in winter, use winter tyres or summer tyres.
....... but drive on summer tyres and stay out of accidents/highway obstruction or take the consequences for not using winter tyres when they would have helped avoid the situation.
Edited by m4rk on Friday 3rd December 08:19
Ignorant mouth breather here - never used winter tyres on any of my cars, never, ever had a problem. Whatsoever. In any winter. Happily sailed up a steep hill past a Defender last winter that was slipping all over the place.
Pistonheads - being binary matters - it either works or it does not... or does it?
Ignorance is bliss, apparently.
Pistonheads - being binary matters - it either works or it does not... or does it?
Ignorance is bliss, apparently.
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