A New Grip on the Road

Not many years ago, snow tires were little more than an oddity on U.S. highways. About all they did then was whine; now they are booming. This year the tire industry will sell 12.5 million of them compared with only 3,850,000 as recently as 1957. To keep the boom going, it has brought out a revolutionary type of snow tire: one with tiny metallic studs imbedded in the rubber to increase traction.

Regular snow tires (which no longer whine) increase traction on snow-covered roads by 50%, but the scores of tiny metallic studs-protruding about one-sixteenth of an inch from the tread -increase the new tires traction on ice by at least 180% and reduce braking distance by 70%. Although many states have long-standing regulations against permanent metallic devices on tires, many others have amended their laws to permit the studs, which are designed to wear down at the same rate as the tread so as to minimize road damage. New York has just become one of a growing number of states to authorize their use. Says a pleased Akron executive: "Who wants to fight safety? It's like fighting motherhood."

Metallic inserts in tires are not brandnew. In the early days of the automobile, motorists sometimes fastened metal nuts to the tread, producing tires that gave good traction but ripped up highways and brought on many of the early anti-metallic-tire laws. Several years ago, metallic stud tires were developed in Sweden; they have since come into widespread use in Scandinavian countries, where they constitute as much as a quarter of all tire sales.

In the U.S., studded tires cost $8 to $10 more than other snow tires, so far constitute less than 1% of all replacement tire sales, and are expected to remain in the limited "premium"-or high-priced-market for years. But the prospects for conventional snow tires seem unlimited, despite the fact that they are a regional and seasonal accessory. In suburbia, they have become as necessary as the second car or the power lawn mower. Many communities are so sold on their performance that they levy fines on any motorist who gets stuck in snow, blocks traffic, and is found to have no snow tires-or tire chains, which the success of the snow tires is making largely obsolete.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.