DC Allows Studded Tires Only From October 15 to April 15

The District regulates studded tires through the D.C. Municipal Regulations rather than the D.C. Official Code. Title 18 DCMR § 732.4 states the baseline prohibition, and it is written broadly: no tire on a vehicle moved on a street or highway may carry on its periphery any block, stud, flange, cleat, or spike, or any other protuberance of any material other than rubber, that projects beyond the tread of the traction surface. Section 732.5 then opens three doors, and only three. Paragraph (a) covers farm machinery whose protuberances will not injure the street or highway. Paragraph (b) covers tire chains of reasonable proportions, when required for safety because of snow, ice, or other conditions tending to cause a vehicle to skid. Paragraph (c) is the studded-tire allowance, and it is the only one of the three that carries a calendar limit.

Read the two dimensional limits in § 732.5(c) separately, because they measure different things. The first is protrusion: the tips of the metal studs may stand no more than one-eighth of an inch (1/8 in.) proud of the rubber tread surface. The second is stud thickness: the cross-sectional diameter may not exceed one-fourth of an inch (1/4 in.), and the regulation specifies that this measurement is taken inclusive of the casing but does not count any flange or flanges embedded in the rubber of the tire. A tire whose studs are within diameter but sitting too proud is out of compliance just as surely as one whose studs are too fat.

The season is fixed by calendar date, not by weather or by a declared emergency. Section 732.5(c) permits studded tires "only from October 15th through April 15th of each year." A District driver who leaves studs on into late April is in violation even during a cold snap, and a driver who fits them in early October is in violation even if snow has already fallen. That same October 15 to April 15 window appears one more time in Title 18, at § 2219.1, which is the District's severe-weather rule for Snow Emergency Routes: during those same months, whenever snow, sleet, or freezing rain is falling or a Snow Emergency Route is coated with snow, sleet, or ice, a driver may not let the vehicle become stalled on that route because its driving wheels lack tire chains or effective snow tires. The two rules are complementary. The District tells you when you may run studs and, on its designated snow routes, effectively tells you to run something.

The rest of § 732 sets the surrounding tire standards. Section 732.1 bars driving or moving any motor vehicle whose tires are in a condition likely to endanger a person or property. Section 732.2 requires each solid rubber tire to carry at least one inch of rubber across its entire traction surface above the edge of the flange. Section 732.3 forbids operating any motor vehicle, trailer, or semi-trailer on a District street or highway with a metal tire in contact with the roadway. Section 732 traces to Regulation No. 72-13, effective June 30, 1972, and was amended by Regulation No. 73-8, effective April 24, 1974, so the one-eighth-inch figure has stood for more than fifty years.

One thing to note about the source of the rule. A full-text search of the D.C. Official Code returns no provision on studded tires, metal studs, or tire protuberances anywhere in its 24,113 sections. There is therefore no statute for the regulation to contradict, and no narrower or broader statutory season to reconcile it with. Section 732 is the whole of District studded-tire law, issued under D.C. Code § 50-2201.03(a), which authorises the Mayor to make, modify, repeal and enforce rules concerning the control of traffic and the movement of traffic, and concerning the brakes, horns, lights, mufflers, and other equipment of vehicles and the inspection of same.

A studded-tire or tire-equipment violation is a moving infraction. 00, which is the single entry covering both the out-of-season stud and the oversized stud. 00. Enforcement is by the Metropolitan Police Department, which issues a notice of infraction. C. 05 by admitting and paying the fine, admitting with an explanation, or denying and requesting a hearing before a Department of Motor Vehicles hearing examiner. C. 03 requires that board to review the case on the record and to set aside any finding that is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law. 02(b) to a refund of the fee paid to bring the appeal.