Snow etc
Mar 2nd 2018, 8:43 pm
#31
Account Closed
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: Snow etc
True winter tires are not required anywhere in BC.
M+S all season tires with proper tread are acceptable as winter tires in BC but are not really winter tires.
M+S all season tires with proper tread are acceptable as winter tires in BC but are not really winter tires.
Mar 3rd 2018, 1:20 am
#32
Tea Drinker
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Kamloops, BC
Posts: 5,387
Re: Snow etc
In BC, winter tires especially the ones with the snowflake and mountain symbol are required outside the Lower Mainland ............... there are signs on the mountain roads requiring the tires plus chains being carried.
That means that you really cannot get past the town of Hope north or east to the Interior of BC without having them. I believe they are also needed to get to Whistler along the Sea to Sky highway.
There are fines for not having the correct tires or chains in the car ......... we have been stopped in past years when going up the Fraser Canyon and again when intending to come south on the Coquihalla for a police check of tires and chains.
Even the police in Vancouver can get upset with you if you do not have at least All Season tires and get stuck
That means that you really cannot get past the town of Hope north or east to the Interior of BC without having them. I believe they are also needed to get to Whistler along the Sea to Sky highway.
There are fines for not having the correct tires or chains in the car ......... we have been stopped in past years when going up the Fraser Canyon and again when intending to come south on the Coquihalla for a police check of tires and chains.
Even the police in Vancouver can get upset with you if you do not have at least All Season tires and get stuck
Living in Kamloops I always have the proper winter tire, I just couldn't get up the Kamloops hills in M&S tires.
Mar 4th 2018, 11:26 pm
#33
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Feb 2013
Location: BC, Canada
Posts: 3,874
Re: Snow etc
Those signs you see as you approach the BC interior highways are slightly misleading. Ideally you should have the mountain snow flake on the side wall, but legally, as long as they say M&S, they are 100% legal.
Living in Kamloops I always have the proper winter tire, I just couldn't get up the Kamloops hills in M&S tires.
https://yossilinks.com/wp-content/up...26-535x350.jpg
Living in Kamloops I always have the proper winter tire, I just couldn't get up the Kamloops hills in M&S tires.
https://yossilinks.com/wp-content/up...26-535x350.jpg
As we have not left the immediate Vancouver area for 2 years, we have M&S tires.
If we had been going to drive anywhere east of Abbotsford, we would have had tires with mountain snow flake, and would have ensured there was plenty of tread on them. That's exactly what we did when we used to do that trip up to the north via the Fraser Canyon or Coquihalla. Plus OH also used to carry chains in the back of the car.
We actually were stopped on one occasion for tire check, and had to show the chains.
It is a little known fact that every road onto the UBC campus is a hill, and in the days when Vancouver used to get lots of snow (yes, it did happen!), we occasionally found that the only route open by the time OH was ready to leave was the road down to Spanish Banks .............. which was just incidentally the steepest hill. All other routes were blocked by the idiots with summer tires and a bag of sand in the trunk to provide weight .......... and had as a result slid sideways to block the road.
On more than one occasion, he had to put on the chains to get down to Spanish Banks ......... road not ploughed, of course!
The next problem was climbing the hilly streets from the Spanish Bank area to Broadway. I remember OH stopping our car just as he was about to turn onto one of those streets and sitting there watching a car sliding down sideways, between parked cars on either side of the road.
He decided that he wouldn't try that road!!
The police never closed those roads as they do the stretch of Oak Street from Broadway (9th Avenue) down to First ..... that's quite an exciting few blocks!
