Tire Question

I use Harmony tires on my accord for summer and X-Ice2 for winter driving here in Nova Scotia. I know our winters aren't as bad as what you have in New England, but the X-Ice2 tires are great in snow and freezing rain at highway speeds and around town, as long as the idiots that are too stupid to put winter tires on their vehicles are not in the way.

If you drive at "highway speeds" in "snow and a freezing rain" only a fool would intentionally be in your way, or anywhere near you.

That's true, fools often drive around forty to fifty kilometres an hour in one hundred and ten kilometre an hour zones in rain, snow and freezing rain, when there is no reason to be such a hazard.

i used to think and drive like you. then i bought a set of dunlop sp sports, and suddenly, i was in a world of quite stupendously bad wet weather tires - hydroplaning so bad that, yes, you had to creep along at less than 50 when it rained. [fab dry weather tires btw, but oh, so bad in the wet, it was just a nightmare.]

moral of the story - i've gone back to michelins and my old driving habits, but now i understand why others don't drive like me - they don't have decent rubber.

What's missing from this string is two words... 'road salt'.

In eastern Canada a lot of road salt is laid down on the roads all winter... it is virtually always there... it is embedded into the pores of the road surface. That road salt doesn't get washed/flushed away until the rains of the spring and summer. This is why people can sometimes manage highway speeds during inclement winter weather. The road crews are usually always on top winter road maintenance (plowing and laying down a lot of salt). Depending on regional preferences and actual conditions, sand, crushed stone, stone dust, etc., could also be included with the salt.

When winter first hits (and that usually means it is staying for 4 or

5 months), the first snow event produces a huge rash of collisions. The media blames it on "people have forgotten how to drive in the winter". This is only partially the reason. What is actually happening, is the road is more slippery, because there is no salt on the road! They are driving like they did in the middle of the previous winter. Sometimes if there is a big thaw (in the middle of the winter) with enough rain to wash the salt off (and out of) the road, the same phenomenon (huge rash of collisions) happens when 'Winter Returns'.