Alaska Studded Tire Season Splits at 60 North Latitude

The 60th parallel is the dividing line, and it splits Alaska's population centres. Anchorage, Fairbanks, Wasilla and Palmer all sit north of 60 North Latitude, so drivers there may keep studs on until April 30 and may remount them on September 16. Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka sit south of the line, where the closed season starts two weeks earlier on April 15 and runs a fortnight later to September 30, leaving a legal window of October 1 through April 14.

Read the prohibition carefully, because it is broader than the phrase "studded tire law" suggests. AS 28.35.155(a) reaches "studded tires or tires with chains attached," so hanging chains on an otherwise legal tire during the closed season is the same offence as running studs. The prohibition is also limited to a "paved highway or road," which leaves gravel and unpaved routes outside the seasonal ban entirely. AS 28.35.155(b) supplies the definition that decides whether a tire is caught: a studded tire is one "with metal studs or spikes imbedded in the periphery of the tire surface, and protruding not more than one-fourth inch from the tire surface."

The Sterling Highway carve-out exists because the road crosses the boundary. Rather than change the rule partway along the highway, the Legislature applied the May 1 through September 15 window to paved portions of the Sterling Highway "at any latitude," giving one date pair for the whole route.

Alaska also builds in a weather valve that most states lack. The commissioner of public safety "shall by emergency order provide for additional lawful operating periods based on unusual seasonal or weather conditions," and such an order is expressly exempted from AS 44.62, the Administrative Procedure Act. That exemption is what lets the Department of Public Safety push the removal deadline back within days of a late spring storm rather than running a rulemaking. Nothing in the section requires an extension in any given year, so the printed dates are the default and an order is the exception.

Drivers who need studs or chains outside the season can buy their way out. On application the Department of Administration may issue a special individual traction permit allowing studded tires or chains "at any time at the discretion of the vehicle owner." The fee is fixed at one-third of the biennial registration fee for that class of vehicle under AS 28.10.421. Because AS 28.10.421(b)(1)(A) sets the biennial fee at $100 for a passenger vehicle, low-speed vehicle, pick-up truck, truck or van in private non-commercial use, the permit runs about $33 for an ordinary car, roughly $20 for a motorcycle at the $60 biennial rate, and about $53 for a taxicab at $160. The department may issue a sticker or other device identifying the permitted vehicle.

Separately from the calendar, the equipment rule at 13 AAC 04.230(b) is what makes studs lawful at all. It bans any non-rubber protuberance projecting beyond the tread, then excepts "tire chains when required for safety because of snow, ice or other conditions which may cause a vehicle to skid" and "pneumatic tires having studs designed to improve traction without substantially injuring the surface of the highway; however, their use may be limited to certain months or types of vehicles, or both." That closing clause is the regulatory hook AS 28.35.155 fills in. The same regulation, at 13 AAC 04.230(e), separately makes it unlawful to drive on a tire with a tread depth under two thirty-seconds of an inch, measured in two adjacent grooves at three equally spaced points around the circumference, so a worn studded tire can be cited in season as well as out.

010 applies. 010(b) sets the punishment for a Title 28 misdemeanor with no specific penalty at a fine of not more than $500, imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both, and permits suspension or revocation of the driving privilege or of vehicle registration. 142. Enforcement is by the Alaska State Troopers and municipal police at the roadside. 155(a) or an emergency order from the commissioner of public safety extending the lawful operating period.