Road safety advocates say winter tires are ‘king’ on Alberta roads

CTV News Edmonton's Nahreman Issa takes a look at the benefits of winter tires in a city like Edmonton.

The first signs of winter started falling in Edmonton on Friday, with fresh snow leading to slicker road conditions. It has tire shops and safety advocates signalling for more winter tires on Alberta roads.

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“We just want everyone to be safe on the road, so we do recommend putting winter tires on,” Brandon Klassen, with the Alberta Motor Association (AMA), told CTV News Edmonton.

Klassen said winter tires give vehicles “better stopping power on ice” of about 15 metres, which he said makes the investment worth it when you compare safety to the cost of a seasonal switch.

“That’s going to be the difference between getting to work safely or getting home safely or getting into an accident,” he said.

Klassen said calls for tow trucks increase in the winter with more vehicles hitting the curb with the wet and icy conditions. And while the AMA encourages winter tires, there are other options like all-weather tires which he described as a “step below” the winter ones.

“(A) winter tire is going to have a softer rubber compound that grips to the road and the ice better,” he explained. “An all-weather tire is going to be a little bit less than that … but they don’t wear in the warmer weather as much as a winter tire would, so you can have them on year-round.”

Cliff Turner runs a mobile tire service in Edmonton, Shire Tire, which goes directly to the customer to deliver services like new tires, seasonal tire changes, disposal of old tires, tire storage, flat repairs and more.

“Winter tires really are the king when we get into extreme situations where we’ve got that extreme cold, the ice and the snow,” Turner said, as one of his tire technicians was prepped to place winter tires on a car outside a home in the city’s south side.

“All-seasons and all-weathers, they’re okay. They’ll get you by if you have to, but the true king of safety on our roads is the winter tire.”

Turner added that tire technology is improving each year with a competitive market of tire manufacturers who are “always trying to up their game.”

“(A) bit more tolerant to the weather so they can stay malleable and grip the roads a little bit better,” he said, adding that new tires are needed about every five years if they are not being swapped seasonally for winter tires.

In Canada, winter tires are mandatory in the province of Quebec and on designated highways in British Columbia. The office of the Minister of Transportation, Devin Dreeshen, provided a statement to CTV News Edmonton on Friday saying there are no plans to make it a policy in Alberta.

“We trust Albertans to make the right call on their own vehicles. We encourage proper winter or all weather tires, but we’re not pursuing a province-wide mandate,” Dreeshen said in the statement. “Our focus is education, maintenance, and enforcement to keep roads safe.”

The AMA said they are a proponent for winter tires, but they cautioned that the tires “don’t make you invincible.”

“You still have to drive to road conditions, especially on the highways,” Klassen said. “It’s not safe to do 100 kilometres an hour, so driving to road conditions and winter tires are going to get you protected.”

The motor association also recommends keeping an emergency road kit in the car – which includes a shovel, cell phone charger and extra food – as it can be hours before help arrives after an accident.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa and Brandon Lynch