Winter driving

Winter driving

Safety is always a priority, but each season presents different road challenges. There are many ways to prepare for winter weather so you can keep yourself and your loved ones safe on the road.

Here you will find useful tips for staying safe including driving on wet or icy roads, maintaining winter tires, and checking air pressure.

 
Driving safely

Driving safely

Learn how to drive on slippery roads and in poor visibility during bad weather.

Learn more about driving safely

Preparing your vehicle

Preparing your vehicle

Make sure your vehicle is ready for winter. Keep your vehicle in top condition before winter starts.

Learn more about maintaining your car

Planning your trip

Planning your trip

Plan ahead and carry tools and supplies in your car to deal with unexpected situations.

Learn more about planning your trip

Using winter tires

Using winter tires

Did you know that at temperatures below 7°C, all-season and summer tires begin to lose traction? Installing winter tires will help you stay safe.

Learn more about winter tires

 

Testing the benefit of using winter tires in Canada

Transcript

We have a couple of Explorers here. We're going to do a small test program where we're trying to compare snow tires to all-season tires braking on slippery surfaces such as snow and ice. So we have two identical Ford Explorers. One will be equipped with good winter tires and one will be equipped with all-season tires.

What we're going to do is try to see how the changes are stopping distance and to try to really show that, you know, there is a huge benefit to using winter tires in the climates that we experience here in Canada. And how that affects safety on the roads.

Getting up to fifty. Getting up to fifty. Fifty. Applying the brakes.

There we go. All right. So we repeated this test in opposing lanes and got nearly identical results. And it really shows the extended stopping distance when using all-season tires in icy conditions. This really does demonstrate the importance of using a winter tire in winter driving conditions, as it greatly reduces the risk of getting in an accident.