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Studded Tires and Snow on Your Roof: Maine's Winter Driving Laws, Read From the Statutes

Published August 12, 2026 · 8 min read

Every year in late September, someone at a Greater Portland tire shop tells a customer that studded tires go on October 1. The same week, someone else says October 15, or that you have to wait for the first snow, or that the shop cannot legally mount them yet. One of those people is close to right and the rest are guessing.

Maine's winter driving rules are unusually easy to check, because nearly all of them sit in one title of the statutes and the Legislature's own law library has already collected them. What is hard is that most of what circulates locally is a half-remembered version of a real rule. Here is the whole set, quoted from the operative text, with the parts people get wrong called out. Two of these rules changed in 2023 and a lot of Mainers have never heard of them.

Studded tires: the window is May 1 to October 1, and the boundary is fuzzier than anyone admits

The controlling text is 29-A M.R.S. section 1919(1):

"Except as provided in subsections 2 and 3, from the first day of May to the first day of October, a person may not operate a vehicle with tires having metal studs, wires, spikes or other metal protruding from the tire tread."

So the prohibition runs from May 1 to October 1. Note what that sentence does not settle: whether October 1 itself is the last prohibited day or the first legal one. The statute says "to the first day of October" and stops there. The Maine State Legislature's Law and Legislative Reference Library page on studded snow tires quotes that same sentence and declines to interpret it, which tells you something. If you want a rule you cannot be argued out of, put them on October 2 and take them off April 30. That costs you one day at each end and removes the entire question.

The section was last amended by PL 2019, c. 31, so this is current law, not a rule that quietly moved while nobody was watching.

Three details in the same section that almost never make it into local advice:

Retractable studs are treated differently. Tires with retractable protuberances may be used any time of the year. What is prohibited between May 1 and October 1 is engaging or extending them. If you run a retractable system you do not have to dismount anything.

There is a permit. Subsection 2 lets the Commissioner of Transportation extend the use period, or in a special case issue a permit for stated periods of studded tire use, at a fee the statute caps between $3 and $15. The permit has to be carried in an easily accessible place in the vehicle. Nobody at a tire shop will mention it.

Fire department vehicles and school buses are exempt from subsection 1 entirely.

Section 1919 does not set its own fine. Under 29-A M.R.S. section 103(3), the exclusive penalty for a traffic infraction is a fine of not less than $25 and not more than $500 unless a section specifically authorizes something else, and section 1919 does not.

The inspection rule that fails front-wheel-drive cars

This one costs people a re-inspection. The Maine Motor Vehicle Inspection Manual, at section 170.01(10)(K)(1), tells mechanics to reject a vehicle equipped with studded tires in violation of law, which is the seasonal rule above. The next line is the one to know:

"Reject vehicle if it is a front wheel drive with studded tires only on the front."

If you have a front-wheel-drive car and you bought two studded tires because four felt like too much money, that car fails inspection. The same subsection also rejects a vehicle for mixing radial and bias ply tires, for a mismatch in nominal size, construction or profile between tires on the same axle, and for any tire worn below 2/32 inch of remaining tread.

Worth saying plainly, because the opposite belief is common: nothing in Maine law requires you to install snow tires. The statute restricts studs. It does not mandate winter rubber. If your all-seasons clear 2/32 inch, they are legal in February.

Snow and ice on your car: Maine got a law in 2023, and it is the weaker of the two that apply

Ask around and you will hear that Maine has no ice missile law, unlike Connecticut or New Jersey. That stopped being true in 2023.

29-A M.R.S. section 2093, enacted by PL 2023, c. 107, reads in full:

"The operator of a vehicle with a registered weight under 10,000 pounds shall take reasonable measures to prevent snow or ice on the vehicle from falling off the vehicle while it is being operated on a public way."

Read the penalty sentence carefully, because it is doing more work than the rule: "A violation of this section that causes damage or injury is a traffic infraction subject to a fine of not more than $50 for a first offense and for which a fine of not less than $150 and not more than $250 may be adjudged for each subsequent offense."

So under section 2093 there is no ticket unless the ice you shed actually causes damage or injury, and the first offense tops out at $50. As a deterrent that is thin.

Here is the part that matters more, and it has been on the books far longer. Section 2396(2) prohibits operating on a public way with a load that is not secured well enough to reasonably prevent part of it from falling off, and it defines the word load for you:

"For the purposes of this section, 'load' includes, but is not limited to, firewood, pulpwood, logs, bolts, snow, ice or other material."

Snow and ice are named in the definition. And section 2396(2) sets its own penalty: a traffic infraction with a fine of not less than $150 and not more than $500. No damage requirement. That subsection was amended by the same 2023 law that created section 2093.

The practical consequence: the famous new snow-on-your-car law is the lenient one, and the older unsecured-load statute is the one with real money attached. Clear the roof.

Windshields, headlights, and the tow truck

Scraping a porthole is a violation. Section 2082(1) prohibits operating with any opaque or semitransparent material or substance on the front windshield, side wing, side or rear window that obstructs the operator's clear view of the way or an intersecting way. It does not say the word snow, and it does not have to.

Headlights go on with the wipers. Section 2067(1) requires illuminated headlights from sunset to sunrise, at any time when rain, freezing rain, fog or snow means people or vehicles are not discernible 1,000 feet ahead, and at any time when the windshield wipers are in constant use. That third clause is the one Mainers forget in a February squall at 2 p.m.

A parked car in the way of a plow can be towed at your expense. Section 2069(2) lets a law enforcement officer move a vehicle that is interfering with snow removal to a suitable parking place at the registered owner's expense. That is the state backstop behind every municipal parking ban, and the bans themselves vary sharply by town. Scarborough's runs year round; Portland's is declared storm by storm. We read all eleven towns' ordinances for overnight and winter parking rules by town.

What this page does not cover

Snow on the ground, as opposed to snow on your vehicle, is a different body of law. Whether you have to shovel the sidewalk in front of your house depends entirely on which town you live in, and in nine of eleven Greater Portland towns the answer is that no law requires it. Pushing your driveway snow into the road, on the other hand, is prohibited statewide by section 2396(4). Both are covered in who has to shovel the sidewalk.

If you are new to Maine and working through the vehicle paperwork, the studded tire window will show up at your first inspection. The mechanics of that appointment are in our guide to car inspection in Cumberland County. The other set of Maine driving rules that catches new residents is seasonal in the opposite direction and starts in late August: the school bus stopping rule and the 15 mph school zone, where the penalty is a criminal charge rather than a ticket.

FAQ

When can you legally put studded tires on in Maine?

Studded tires are prohibited from May 1 to October 1 under 29-A M.R.S. section 1919(1). The statute says the ban runs "from the first day of May to the first day of October" and does not state whether October 1 falls inside or outside the window. Mounting on October 2 and removing by April 30 keeps you clearly legal at both ends.

Is it illegal to drive with snow on your car in Maine?

Yes, under two separate statutes. 29-A M.R.S. section 2093, enacted in 2023, requires operators of vehicles registered under 10,000 pounds to take reasonable measures to stop snow or ice falling off, but only fines you if it causes damage or injury, and only up to $50 for a first offense. 29-A M.R.S. section 2396(2) treats snow and ice as an unsecured load and carries a fine of $150 to $500 with no damage requirement.

Does Maine require snow tires in winter?

No. Maine law restricts metal studs by season and sets a minimum tread depth of 2/32 inch for inspection. It does not require winter or all-weather tires at any point in the year.

Will studded tires fail a Maine state inspection?

They will if they are on the vehicle outside the legal season, and they will also fail on a front-wheel-drive vehicle that has studded tires only on the front axle. Both rejections are listed in the Maine Motor Vehicle Inspection Manual at section 170.01(10)(K)(1).

Do you have to turn your headlights on when it snows in Maine?

Yes, in two circumstances beyond the sunset-to-sunrise rule. 29-A M.R.S. section 2067(1) requires headlights whenever snow, rain, freezing rain or fog makes people or vehicles indiscernible at 1,000 feet, and whenever your windshield wipers are in constant use.

Can the police tow my car during a snowstorm?

Yes. 29-A M.R.S. section 2069(2) allows a law enforcement officer to have a vehicle that is interfering with snow removal moved to a suitable parking place at the registered owner's expense. Municipal parking bans layer on top of this and differ by town.

Can I get a permit to run studded tires outside the legal window?

Yes, in a special case. 29-A M.R.S. section 1919(2) allows the Commissioner of Transportation to extend the use period or issue a permit for stated periods, with a fee the statute caps between $3 and $15. The permit must be carried in an easily accessible place in or about the vehicle.

Sources

Statutory text above is from the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 29-A, sections 103, 1919, 2067, 2069, 2082, 2093 and 2396, Office of the Revisor of Statutes, read 2026-08-12. Inspection rejection criteria are from the Maine Motor Vehicle Inspection Manual, Maine State Police, section 170.01(10)(K)(1). The statutory list was cross-checked against the Legislature's Law and Legislative Reference Library pages on studded snow tires and on snow removal, both current through the Second Regular Session of the 132nd Legislature.