Do you really need emergency winter gear in your car?

If you followed all the advice on what to carry in your trunk to survive winter driving in Canada, there’d be little room left for the groceries, sports gear, or gifts you’ll inevitably need to haul.

You’ll be carrying booster cables, show shovels, a complete set of snow gear and winter boots, emergency food supplies, lights of all types, candles, flares, SOS signs, tire-traction mats or frames, bags of salted sand, first aid kits, bear spray, tire chains, tow ropes ... the list goes on.

First, people who drive only in urban areas can pretty much leave most of that gear — except a winter-proof first aid kit and a couple of other items — in the garage or on store shelves until you actually need them. Yes, winter weather is unpredictable and road conditions are often less than ideal, but in builtup areas, the chances of you freezing or starving to death because of a motoring mishap are pretty low.

Having a lightweight (preferably foldable) snow shovel is still a good idea because it helps make getting your vehicle — or someone else’s — out of a snow bank much safer than an amateur trying to tow or push you out.

Tow ropes and booster cables are only good if someone knows how to use them. Attach a rope to the wrong point on a vehicle or hook up a set of cables incorrectly, and you’re in for some possibly expensive repairs and/or personal injury. The safer alternative is a battery booster pack — you reduce the chances of hooking up the connections wrong, and even if you do, most good units have protection circuits built in. Most of them even have handy charging ports for your smartphone, but these booster packs are only useful if you keep them charged.

Traction aids such as sand, salt, or solid tire-grip racks just add weight and take up space, not to mention present a real risk of injury in a collision if they’re not properly secured.

Instead, get the right winter tires and keep your fuel tank above half for traction-improving weight in just the right place.

If you dress for the season and not for a sunny warm day, you can leave the extra winter wearables in your closet. But if you insist on driving to work with open-toed sandals, a light jacket and no gloves or head wear, keep this gear in the trunk.

A good emergency light is handy year-round, but save the candles for your birthday or a romantic dinner.

Again, all of this applies if you are driving in the city. If you plan to traverse rural areas, it’s a good idea to keep your emergency gear well stocked.