SOUND OFF: Collins should have considered his privilege before writing winter tire column

I AM WRITING TO EXPRESS MY CONCERN with the opinion piece published by CFJC Today on November 6, 2022, titled “COLLINS: No proper winter tires? Get the hell off the road!”

I have seen more opinion pieces published by CFJC Today over the past year that are concerning and do nothing to improve our community, bring us together, or to build empathy and understanding in a time where the world and our community need more connection, not division and hate. That “opinion” piece was really just an opportunity for one man to display a lack of understanding of privilege, empathy and consideration for why many people in our community found themselves in difficult winter driving conditions.

It is a privilege to have the option to “get off the road”. It is also a privilege to get winter tires on in time, or perhaps to even afford winter tires. If you were to look into who was stuck on the roads on Thursday with poor or inadequate tires, you would find a high proportion of those people were folks without choice. Those going to or from low paying jobs that require them to be there in person (rather than those of us privileged to be able to opt to work from home), possibly having to choose between skipping a day of work or having enough money to pay for rent, food or other essentials — such as winter tires. People who did not want to be driving without winter tires, but without choice because they can’t afford winter tires. Or folks who are newcomers to our country and didn’t realize the importance of winter tires versus tires that have different symbols that mean they are allowed for winter use but don’t all perform the same. And even for folks who didn’t want to drive but had to go to work or other commitments, they didn’t have the choice to take transit – many of the buses were not running. As for those folks who have winter tires but didn’t put them on in time, it has not been easy to get a tire appointment this year. If people are constrained for time to make these appointments — think about all those folks who are working long hours in jobs that require them to be there in person, leaving them competing for highly sought-after weekend and evening appointments — they likely had to book their appointments months ago. Those of us with flexible schedules still had to wait weeks to book appointments this fall.

I could go on about a long list of reasons why people didn’t have the right tires on the vehicles and were caught off guard by the weather on Thursday. But if you consider the examples I shared above, they are all connect to privilege, or lack of. The privilege of choice, economic advantage, flexibility in schedule, knowledge, etc. And those most likely to be caught with the wrong tires last week? Those who are disadvantaged due to socioeconomic status, which means it was more likely to be people from already marginalized groups that face other disadvantages.