Get those winter tires on earlier, CAA tells Gatineau drivers

A not-for-profit association says residents in Gatineau, Que., should be legally required to have winter tires by Nov. 5, rather than the current provincial-wide legal date in December.

A spokesperson with CAA-Quebec said the deadline of Dec.15 is unrealistic.

"It should be done for everyone in mid November," said Pierre-Olivier Fortin, a spokesperson with the road safety association.

The group has calculated "realistic" dates based of the different regions in the province in partnership with the weather network MétéoMédia.

The recommended date for Gatineau is Nov. 5.

7 C threshold

Quebec City shares that date, while Montreal's would be Nov. 10, the latest date in the study.

People in the Sept-Îles region should get their winter tires on by Oct. 20, the earliest ideal deadline.

"When you look at the realistic dates that have been calculated based on temperatures, it's well before Dec. 15," Fortin said.

"We know that the temperature at which we have to switch to winter tires is 7 C [...] so we could have put our tires on much earlier this year."

Next year the deadline is moving to Dec. 1.

More changes to the winter tire rules were not a significant plank in current Premier François Legault's platform.

1 in 5 vehicles still have summer tires

CAA-Quebec examined the tires of 200 vehicles in parking lots around Quebec City Thursday.

The association found that one in five vehicles were still using summer tires.

Six per cent were using tires that were too worn to be safe.

CAA-Quebec stated that 24 per cent of the vehicles were not equipped to deal with the upcoming snowy forecast.