Maryland Studded Tires: Five Counties, November 1 to March 31

The prohibition is written as a tire-surface rule rather than a snow-tire rule. Transportation Article § 22-405.2(b) says a tire on a vehicle driven on a highway may not have 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. Subsection (a) separately forbids driving any motor vehicle, trailer or semitrailer with a metal tire in contact with the roadway. Between them, the two subsections reach studs, cleats and metal-faced tires without ever using the phrase "snow tire".

The exception is both geographic and seasonal. Section 22-405.2(c) exempts owners of vehicles registered in Allegany County, Carroll County, Frederick County, Garrett County or Washington County, and only from November 1 through March 31. Four of the five sit in Maryland's western mountains and panhandle; Carroll County, north of Baltimore, is the one most people leave off the list. Registration is what controls, not where you happen to be driving, so a car registered in Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County or on the Eastern Shore has no exemption available to it even during a February ice storm in Garrett County.

Out-of-state drivers get a broader pass than Marylanders. Section 22-405.2(b)(3) makes it permissible for a vehicle not registered or required to be registered in this State to use the tires described in the subsection. A Pennsylvania or West Virginia car crossing on I-68 or I-70 with studs is therefore within the exception, while the Maryland-registered car in the next lane may not be.

Sales are restricted to the same five counties. Section 22-405.2(b)(4) provides that except in Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett and Washington counties, a person may not sell or offer for sale in Maryland any tire that the subsection does not permit to be used. COMAR 11.13.02.10B(1), the Motor Vehicle Administration regulation adopted under the authority of § 22-405.2, repeats the same five-county sales limit.

That regulation also sets the stud specifications, which the statute leaves entirely to the MVA. Under COMAR 11.13.02.10C, studs must be designed to regulate protrusion under all conditions of loading to a minimum of 1/32 inch (0.031 inch) and a maximum of 2/32 inch (0.062 inch). Pin or core diameter is limited to between 0.062 inch and 0.125 inch, and casing diameter to between 0.187 inch and 0.250 inch. The count is capped two ways: the combined cross-sectional area of the stud assemblies may not exceed 1 1/4 percent (0.0125) of the total tread surface area, and in no case may more than 150 studs be installed in a tire.

One point of difference between the two instruments is worth knowing before you drive east. Section 22-405.2(c) exempts qualifying owners from the prohibition without saying where the vehicle may go. COMAR 11.13.02.10B(2) is narrower: it says that from November 1 through March 31 vehicles registered in the five counties may be equipped with studded snow tires and may be operated only in Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett and Washington counties. The MVA regulation is the stricter reading, so a Garrett County vehicle on studs is plainly safe within the five counties and is on the wrong side of the regulation driving to Annapolis in February.

Tire chains are treated completely differently and are not tied to the five counties or to the winter window at all. Section 22-405.2(b)(2) permits tire chains of reasonable proportions on any vehicle when required for safety because of snow, ice or other conditions tending to cause a vehicle to skid. That is a statewide, condition-triggered allowance, which makes chains the lawful option for a Montgomery County or Baltimore County driver heading into the mountains.

The special-permit power in § 22-405.2(d) does not help ordinary drivers. It lets the State Highway Administration and local authorities authorise traction engines, tractors with movable tracks carrying transverse corrugations, and farm tractors or other farm machinery, not studded passenger tires.

A stud or chain violation is enforced roadside. Transportation Article § 22-405(d) provides that if a police officer at any time has reasonable cause to believe a vehicle is unsafe or equipped with tires in violation of the tire provisions, the officer may require the driver to stop and submit the tire to an inspection, and may issue a summons if the inspection discloses a violation. Because the Maryland Vehicle Law does not set a specific penalty for § 22-405.2, the default in § 27-101 applies: the violation is a misdemeanour, and a person convicted is subject to a fine not exceeding $500. Selling or offering studded snow tires outside the five permitted counties is a violation of the same section and carries the same exposure. There is no state safety-inspection lane that meters studs; Maryland's inspection requirement attaches on transfer of a used vehicle rather than annually, so the practical check is the roadside stop under § 22-405(d).