Use winter tires, or common sense?

Re: It is time to make snow tires mandatory, Nov. 27.

Please, Kelly Egan, not you too. I couldn’t believe that the columnist (whose columns I enjoy day after day) has a front-page story on making snow tires mandatory in Ontario. We do have enough of a nanny state, yes “big brother already runs the road” and yes, Quebec has made it mandatory.

But wait just a minute; Quebec is the only jurisdiction that makes winter tires mandatory. No provinces or northern states in the United States have this law. Why? As Egan mentions, the Ontario Ministry of Transport states that there is insufficient evidence to suggest mandatory winter tires. In jurisdiction after jurisdiction the comment and proof is the same — there is insufficient evidence.

Growing up in Ottawa, we were always told by parents, family members, friends and neighbours that when winter starts, the road surfaces change so you have to be more cautious, go slower, take your foot off the gas pedal earlier and anticipate a more slippery part of the road as you come into any intersections. The one law that is supreme is simple common sense. I would suggest that many people who get snow tires think that this gives them a “carte blanche” and they can drive as they wish, when, in fact, this adds a margin of danger.

Paying attention and driving defensively is the safest way to drive. So please, coming from a man in his 60s and having driven a million miles and then some, think it through. It is not time to make snow tires mandatory just because Quebec did; let us stand on our own two feet and use a little common sense.

KEVIN SULLIVAN, Ottawa