What kind of tyres would be in use here?

[MitchT]

Cust curious really...

A live stream popped up in my YouTube recommendations and it features a remote Russian town where temperatures are around -35 Celsius. Despite the clearly snowy, icy road surface, vehicles are moving around as freely and effectively as they would on a bone dry road in the UK. Clearly they are using tyres that are made for the conditions, but what would those be? Are we talking simple winter tyres or much more elaborate, like studded?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoveYtK8Lcc

[Kawasicki]

Studded winter tyres or proper cold weather winter tyres.

Northern Scandinavia has trucks thundering along at 70mph on snow/ice covered roads and grannies drifting old Volvos around town.

Humans are very adaptable.

[MattyD803]

I've always assumed they are on pretty much 'standard' Winter Tyres....but now you mention it, I wonder if they do a special extreme winter compound in those regions...?

[ARHarh]

Not sure what tyres they are using, decent winters probably but may be studded. But the real difference is the drivers are used to driving on ice, they do it all winter every winter.

[E-bmw]

In Iceland (for instance) pretty much anyone that goes out of town uses full studded tyres, they make a hell of a racket when you are on the pavement being driven past & ruin the road surface, but they clearly do the trick of keeping the cars on the road.

You can quite clearly see the wear to the road surface in 2 channels running where the tyre contacts the road.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@64.1463292,-21.9323...

I am guessing they must resurface every year on the busiest inner city roads.

[MitchT]

Whatever they're using, they're braking as effectively as they would on a dry road in the UK. They don't appear to be braking sooner or more gently.

Also, interesting to note that everyone seems to be working to accommodate one another. I've seen a few cheeky moves that, in the UK, would have caused another driver to become irate and try to block them, but here everyone's easing off to give each other space and keep the flow going nicely. Ironic considering the dashcam videos you see portaying Russian drivers as suicidal maniacs!

[MitchT]

E-bmw said:

In Iceland...

Yeah, I went to Iceland a few years ago. Again, clearly everyone had the proper tyres on as the traffic was moving the same way as it would on a dry road in the UK, despite some roads being covered in snow. We went on a few excursions by coach on snowy highways and we could easily have been on a National Express coach on a UK A-road in August!

[Smint]

I see nothing there other than people driving competently at a reasonable speed for the quite pleasant conditions, no tailgating no sudden changes in direction or speed, and no one terrified of the conditions causing frustration and bunching....helped no doubt by being constantly well under freezing point so ice is unlikely, helped too by not typical urban Britain traffic volumes.

Hard packed snow is not any real trouble to drive on especially if you have half decent winter rated rubber, salting isn't the be all and end all it can make things worse (makes everything filthy and corrodes everything it gets near), salt melts some of the snow but can soon be overcome with more snow which weakens the salt mix which then turns to ice.

[Tony1963]

One point to make: the coefficient of friction for ice INCREASES as the temperature drops further below zero.

[Evanivitch]

ARHarh said:

Not sure what tyres they are using, decent winters probably but may be studded. But the real difference is the drivers are used to driving on ice, they do it all winter every winter.

Having driven in -20C Sweden with no prior experience, in a pickup with studded tyres on, no prior experience was needed. We were thundering around the place (highways and single track) with complete faith in the studded tyres on the surface.

[tapkaJohnD]

When I lived in Sweden , everyone had two sets of wheels. One studded, one not, and they would swap them around for winter. As said above, they then drive normally.

Problem arises when you live a in a big town, as the snow on the road just wears out. The studs are then running on the tarmac, wearing them both out!
John