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I've driven in northern Norway with snow tyres. You're correct in saying that it's relatively safe and easy to do. In the UK no-one even switches to winter tyr
by throwaway22032 3y ago
I've driven in northern Norway with snow tyres. You're correct in saying that it's relatively safe and easy to do.
In the UK no-one even switches to winter tyres when it's cold. With snow or ice people are running on 5-10 year old summer tyres with the minimum legal tread depth.
Plus we're basically always in the melt-refreeze zone around 5 to -5c vs. a proper Norwegian winter at -10 to -40 whereby your car can form ice that will just never melt unless it's an ICE. It's just not the same at all.
I miss proper winters!
- mattlondon 3y agoI see a lot of cars in the UK with tyres like Michelin crossclimates. I have them on my car too. FWIU they are basically an all-season tyre that has 75% the capability of a winter tyre ... Not just snow but also general wet weather etc when under 5c. There are loads of videos of YouTube of Cars using them driving up ski slopes etc. They seem like a good compromise for me for UK climate.
- arrowsmith 3y agoThe thing about the UK is that it snows so infrequently* that it's just not worth the investment to deal with it properly. Where I live in the south, I think we've had snow on the roads maybe twice in the last four years, each time for only 1-2 days. The entire country grinds to a halt when it happens, but it happens rarely. *Or at least it's infrequent these days, I'm sure it snowed a lot more often when I was growing up, and my parents tell me that back in their day it would reliably snow a lot every winter. Must be a Chinese hoax.
- throwaway426079 3y agoWe had snow on my street for about 5 days early this year (not a main road so didn't get cleared). Didn't grind to a halt at all - just needed a bit more care to get to the main road, which was cleared. I drive an ordinary FWD car with standard tires.