Rhode Island Allows Studded Tires from November 15 to April 1, Studs Capped at 1/16 Inch

The Rhode Island rule is written as a flat prohibition with three named exceptions rather than as a studded-tire permission. Section 31-23-20 begins by barring any tire on a vehicle moved on a highway from carrying on its periphery a block, flange, cleat, pointed spike or other protuberance of any material other than rubber that projects beyond the tread of the traction surface. Everything a driver is allowed to run therefore has to fit one of the three carve-outs that follow, and the studded-tire carve-out is the narrowest of them.

That carve-out has two independent conditions and both must be met. The studs must be flat-headed and must project one-sixteenth of an inch (1/16") or less beyond the tread of the traction surface, and they may only be on the vehicle from the fifteenth day of November to the first day of April. Rhode Island states its window in ordinal calendar language rather than as a fixed date range, so April 1 is the last day the statute reaches and studs are unlawful on April 2. A stud head that sits proud of the tread by more than a sixteenth of an inch is outside the exception even in January, which matters for worn tires whose tread has receded around fixed studs.

Nothing in § 31-23-20 delegates the dates to an agency. The section names no department, sets no rulemaking authority and contains no weather-contingent extension, and the only permit power anywhere in chapter 23 of title 31 is § 31-23-21, which lets the department of revenue and local authorities issue special permits for traction engines, tractors and farm machinery running movable tracks with transverse corrugations. That permit reaches tracked equipment, not studs, so neither the Rhode Island Department of Transportation nor the Division of Motor Vehicles can lengthen the season after a late-March storm. The window has stood in its present form since P.L. 1980, ch. 200, § 1; the 2002 recodification at P.L. 2002, ch. 292, § 120 added only the cross-reference to the fine schedule.

The second and third exceptions matter to different drivers. Farm machinery may run tires with protuberances that will not injure the highway, with no season attached. Tire chains of reasonable proportions are permitted on any vehicle when required for safety because of snow, ice, or other conditions tending to cause a vehicle to skid, which is a condition-based test rather than a calendar one, so chains are lawful in a freak May ice storm and unlawful on dry pavement in January. Separately, § 31-23-19 bans metal tires in contact with the roadway outright, with no seasonal exception of any kind.

Tire condition is policed alongside stud legality. Section 31-23-45 sets a minimum tread depth of two thirty-seconds (2/32) of an inch and authorizes the administrator of the Division of Motor Vehicles to remove a non-conforming vehicle from the highway and to suspend its registration until the tires are brought into compliance. Rhode Island also runs a periodic safety inspection under chapter 38 of title 31: § 31-38-4 requires inspection at least once each year and no more than twice each year, or on the schedule set under chapter 47.1, with the first inspection of a new vehicle due within two years of purchase or before 24,000 miles, whichever comes first.

A violation of § 31-23-20 is a civil traffic violation, not a crime. I. Gen. 00, the same figure the schedule assigns to metal tires under § 31-23-19 and to defective tire treads under § 31-23-45. Charges on that schedule may be handled administratively through the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal, which hears the summons and can also refer offenses whose punishment varies with severity to a municipal court. Beyond the ticket, § 31-38-2 lets the director of the Department of Revenue, state and local police, and designated Division of Motor Vehicles employees stop a vehicle at any time and require it to submit to an inspection.

If the vehicle is found unsafe or a required part is out of repair, the officer issues a written notice that must be complied with and approved within five days, and the director may order the vehicle to the state inspection facility and suspend the registration if the notice is ignored. Three notices in a twelve-month period for the same or substantially the same defect require the director to suspend the registration.