Winter driving season begins: Studded tires are back, chains required over passes

Nov. 1 came and went without much fanfare, but it marks a significant change in your preparations for driving over the passes.

You can put your studded tires back on your car. They are legal to use through March 31. Though the state asks you to look into studded tire alternatives because it estimates those tires cause up to $29 million in damage to Washington’s roads each year.

You should start carrying your chains in your car, just to be ready when the snow hits. If you are traveling over the passes, you are not required to carry chains in passenger vehicles, but you should. You don’t want to get a ticket for not following the chain requirements in bad weather.

When the chains required sign is active, even Four Wheel Drive or All Wheel Drive vehicles are required to put them on. The state requires them on at least the two front or two rear tires.

And studded tires don’t meet the chain requirements. You still need to chain up, if required.

Now to the big boys. The commercial vehicles and any rig over 10,000 pounds GVW, which could be some passenger trucks or SUVs.

Chains required at all times over the passes

You are required to have chains at all times over the passes. Sergeant Rocky Oliphant, spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol Commercial Vehicle Division, said emphasis patrols are coming.

“Officers and troopers will be doing chain enforcement,” he said. “If you do not have chains and you’re in a commercial vehicle, you will be pulled over, possibly ticketed, and for sure, turned around.”

That’s the penalty for failing to carry chains. A trip back down the mountain. That’s a bad day.

Oliphant wanted to drive this message home early in the season so we don’t have trouble when the snow arrives.

“Every year it seems like we have some sort of semi truck commercial vehicle that has an issue, didn’t end up having chains, and we end up having to shut down the pass,” he said. “We would like to get ahead of this, so we usually will do an emphasis out there with chain enforcement to hopefully get people prepared for going over the pass.”

And Oliphant has a message for us non-commercial drivers: Give those big rigs a lot of room. Don’t make sudden moves around them. Don’t be the reason for a truck losing control.

“Give semi trucks extra room,” he said. “A lot of things that we see, and this is something that I’ve tried to focus on a little bit more, is aggressive cars around trucks. Sometimes we have these aggressive cars. They cut off semi trucks. Those trucks don’t have as much space where they can stop.”

They also might not see you.

One more tip. I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but now is the time to practice putting those chains on.

Drive safely.

Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.

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