OLYMPIA, WA – As weather warms and more Oregonians spend their time outside, spring brings the telltale clicking sounds of studded tires carving ruts into snow-free roads.

Studies have shown that studded tires reduce road life and cost the state millions in repairs. Several states, including Alaska, Florida and Minnesota, have banned metal studded tires, and in neighboring Washington, drivers must pay $5 fee per studded tire —  a move meant to disincentivize drivers from choosing one of the most destructful tires to the state’s roads and allocate funding for road repairs.

So why hasn’t Oregon followed their lead, particularly when the state is far behind on road maintenance and as the state transportation department faces ongoing funding uncertainty?

Studded tires have small metal spikes designed to break through snow and ice, but the extra winter traction comes at the expense of carving ruts into pavement. Studies show studded tires reduce asphalt life by six to eight years, and repairing ruts in 2014 cost the state $98,000 per lane mile — or nearly $300,000 per mile of a three-lane highway.

Oregon charges a $165 fine for drivers who use them outside of Nov. 1 to March 31, but there have been no attempts to fully ban studded tires in Oregon in the last 15 years, according to Patrick Brennan, an analyst with Oregon’s nonpartisan Legislative Policy and Research Office. That’s because studded tire use is so useful to communities living in mountainous, snowier parts of the state, he told the Capital Chronicle.

But lawmakers since 2013 have tried at least three times to impose fees on studded tire purchases and installation, proposing they dedicate most of that toward the State Highway Fund to help pay for road repairs. No bills, however, have made it past the committee process.

Rep. Susan McLain, a Forest Grove Democrat who chairs the House Transportation Committee, said she’s seen several bills in her time in office since 2015 that proposed fees on studded tires. But with more people using alternative winter tires, she said the amount of money collected by imposing fees on studded tires wouldn’t make much of a difference to the state’s road maintenance fund.

“It didn’t feel like it was a very large or ongoing possibility for that to be meaningful,” she told the Capital Chronicle in a phone call.

Since Washington implemented its law, studded tire sales there dropped from nearly 171,000 sold in fiscal years 2018-19 to about 107,000 during fiscal years 2024 and 2025, according to the Washington Department of Revenue.

And studded tire damage in Washington is still estimated to cause $20 to $29 million in damage a year on state and local roads, according to the Washington Department of Transportation.

The Oregon Department of Transportation does not track how many drivers use studded tires, but the latest agency study shows Oregon has seen a significant drop in how many drivers use studded tires, from 16% of drivers in 1995 to 4% who used them in the winter of 2013 to 2014.

According to that same study, studded tire damage to state roads cost Oregon about $8.5 million in 2012. That doesn’t include the cost of damage to city and county roads. In recent years, state transportation officials estimated that number to sit closer to $4 million by 2022. Most of that road damage came from the Portland Metro region, where there’s more drivers using studded tires, followed by Central Oregon, where there’s higher studded tire usage.

The state transportation department hasn’t conducted any more recent studies of studded tires.

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