TransLink bus tires, explained
TransLink bus tires, explained
A common question we get asked during the snowy season is why doesn’t TransLink use winter tires? Simply put – we do. TransLink bus tires are winter tires, and they have the highest snow traction rating available for bus tires.
All TransLink bus tires have the Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake rating, this means they’re proven to perform well in winter conditions. The symbol is recognized by tire manufacturers throughout Canada and the United States to show that a tire has been tested to provide quality traction in snow and winter conditions.
Car tires and bus tires are very different. While it’s common for people to change their tires to dedicated snow tires during winter months, this is not common practice with buses. In fact, no major transit agency in Canada changes their bus fleet’s tires for the winter months. Tire manufacturers design bus tires with strong winter performance in mind for year-round use. To ensure these tires are performing well, we also constantly check our fleet’s tread depth and change any tire that gets below 9 millimeters of tread.
“Our tires are the same, or better than those used on buses across Canada, including cities which receive far more snow than we do,” says Simon Agnew, Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) Maintenance Engineer. “These tires are recommended to us by our tire provider, Michelin, as being best suited to Metro Vancouver’s weather.”
Select buses may use tire socks, which are a helpful tool for travel in hilly areas with snow buildup.
We’re always looking to improve our performance in winter and continue to test new tires as they come onto the market to see if we can improve bus traction in difficult conditions. Visit our Winter Readiness page to learn more about all that we are doing.
Make sure to plan ahead during inclement weather! Sign up for Transit Alerts to get real-time updates about your commute. Follow @TransLink on Twitter or reach out to our Customer Information team at (604) 953-3333.
OK so follow up question, does every other city in Canada have an issue with their busses when there is less than an inch of snow?
Our buses do not have issues with less than an inch of snow. And in the 47 years I’ve been riding them here, I have never experienced a situation where less than an inch (less than 3cm) has ever caused an issue. More snow, yes. But less than an inch, no. And it’s stupid to think they would. And if you have a problem with snow buildup on the streets , blame the municipal or city crews and contractors for not clearing it.
Less than an inch of snow caused problems with the transit buses. It was the ice! It was the fact they did NOT prepare for the forecast! WTF!
I honestly have no idea why you guys are trying to fool the public by telling us that these “3-Peak Mountain Snowflake” tires are your best and only option when two weeks ago your buses couldn’t even go up a slight hill because of the snow. Simon Agnew should know that there are better winter tires on the market.
Quote from hagerty.com as to why WINTER TIRES are better than 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake tires:
“Traditional winter tires, with their temperature-optimized rubber compounds and open-block tread designs, do a couple of things that 3PMSF all-seasons can’t. They’re particularly good for clearing slush or mixed-condition snow at higher speeds. They’re better at low-temperature braking and cornering. And while no tire is all that useful on slick ice, a winter tire might give you a better chance.“
Can you guys just stop lying and up your game? ~6 years in a row of this is ridiculous. The tire socks literally don’t work either according to your own bus drivers. You’re not fooling anyone when you’re clearly not doing your part to improve how your buses navigate through the snow. It is completely disingenuous of TransLink/CMBC to take absolutely no responsibility for their lack of winter preparedness by refusing to switch to winter tires, and I truly hope more people speak up against these pathetic excuses.
Why should they switch to winter tries when other cities in Canada don’t?
Hills
the buses got stuck bloking the traffic not cars blocking the buses They just want to grab people money not provide a good service at all
Well said and i absolutely agree..its Stupid to think they can fool us with that earlier pathetic response…1.or 2 cms of snow is all that’s needed to put these buses out od service.
This is not true my husband was a bus driver and said they use to put dedicated snow tires on for winter and they worked a whole lot better then the tires they use now. It cost too much so then they changed the tires to the ones they’re using now. My husband now is semi-retired and works for a company that takes tourist buses that are bigger than the city buses up to Whistler and they have excellent tires and they have less trouble in the snow.
Other Canadian cities like Edmonton do not use snow tires either, although ETS do use snow tires on the Articulated buses on the rear axle.
Snow tires does not make up for poor conditions and lack of response from municipalities. The roads also need to be maintained in order to see any result from snow tires.
Snow tires would’ve been useless during the recent Vancouver snowstorm. All buses would’ve been just as stuck, keep in mind too that if traffic is not moving, buses do not move too.
Someone sure likes poetry. Gotta rhyme to hurt!
It wasn’t just the buses that have issues. Genuinely the buses seem to run okay from my experience! The only one’s with an issue are the articulated buses. Which usually don’t operate in the snow anyways, or at least shouldn’t. The issue is municipalities. I don’t know how it is for Vancouver. Surrey has horrible road service. It’s been snowing all day. No salt trucks. No plows. Its a Sunday with minimal traffic. It would be very easy for municipalities to get ahead of the game for Monday morning. Instead they twiddle their thumbs. The plows end up getting stuck in traffic, because they wait till rush hour to start clearing the roads. Time to stop blaming Translink for the problem, and looking at the real culprit. If you want to blame Translink for something. Blame them for how horrible the Skytrain runs in the snow.
So why do the buses suck during the winter? Is it the city’s fault?
I have almost six decades under my belt. Now unless tires have changed over the last 60 years, what I have been experiencing with bus service just shutting down with a few inches of snow is inexcusable here in the Lower Mainland. Now I have seen winter bus service in Halifax (hills), Montreal/Quebec City (quantity of snow and hills), Toronto (I will leave that to your imagination), Winnipeg (in case you decide to argue “winter”) , Kamloops/Kelowna, and what I see in the Lower Mainland is pure abuse of the public by a service/system with one liners at the tip of their tongue. No offense to any Translink personnel, but may I “talk” to your AI to resolve decades of this type of service?