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Jeff Bernards is tired of driving in rainy ruts caused by studded tires and even more tired of politicians not doing more to protect the roads.

“The Legislature doesn’t do anything,” he said.

Bernards, a citizen activist, is pushing a ballot initiative to ban the use of studded tires in Oregon. He’s received advice from veteran initiative backer Bill Sizemore and hopes to make the ballot in 2012.

According to an Oregon Department of Transportation estimate, studded tires cause more than $40 million of damage annually on roads across Oregon. The state spends about $11 million per year fixing that damage.

Keeping up with road repairs would be hard enough without stud damage, Bernards said. “We’ve got this backlog of road maintenance. Let’s stop destroying them.

“Wouldn’t that be the first step?”

People have proposed that first step for decades. The idea gained momentum in 1974, when the then-Oregon Highway Division recommended a ban on studded tires. A report presented to the Oregon Transportation Commission found that a ban would save 93 miles of highway paving each year.

The Legislature trounced that idea in its 1975 session. Nevertheless, some sort of ban or regulation on studded tires arises nearly every legislative session.

In 1999, Sen. John Lim proposed a $3 fee per studded tire to offset the damage studs cause. That bill died in the Transportation committee.

Proposing to regulate studs riles a lot of people, especially east of the Cascades. Lim, who is now seeking the Republican nomination for governor, said it’s not a good campaign issue.

“When I’m governor, maybe that’s a different story, but it’s not on the front burner right now,” Lim said. He considers a fee to be a tax.

“This is a bad time to increase taxes,” he said. “Any fee or tax I’m also opposing.”

Sen. Rick Metsger chaired the Transportation committee that discussed regulating studded tires, including in a 2007 bill that would have required permits for the tires. Metsger, a Democrat running for state treasurer, said concerns from Eastern Oregon drivers typically kill such bills.

That happens, Metsger said, even through the damage from studs is clear and legislators representing Eastern Oregon are in the minority. “I think people are sensitive to how their colleagues east of the mountains feel,” he said.

Supporters of studded tires tend to feel safer using them, Metsger said, despite studies showing the tires are less safe than ordinary tires in all but icy conditions. “It’s actually not as safe to have studded tires when there’s wet pavement, because people can’t stop as fast.”

Metsger still supports banning studded tires, but doesn’t press the issue any more. “Having fought the battle two or three different times, it’s just not high on my priority list at this point.”

Discussions of studded tires tend to focus not on road repair budgets but on safety, said ODOT spokesman Patrick Cooney. “That’s where all the arguments come in,” he said.

“It gets into emotional discussion pretty quickly,” Cooney said. “Our concern is (that drivers) have a false sense of security.”

ODOT provides information on studded-tire performance under various conditions and the damage the studs cause to roads. The agency gives information on other traction tires it says are as effective on ice as studded tires and safer in other conditions.

But ODOT takes no official position on what tires drivers should use. “We tell them when they need to carry chains or traction tires,” Cooney said. “But those are consumer choices.”

Legislators, and not ODOT officials, can change the law. Or, barring legislative action, a citizen initiative could do the same.

That’s where Bernards hopes to come in with his ballot measure. He could have a tough fight just to make the ballot, said Sizemore, a veteran of many such fights.

On a practical level, Bernards has to raise $250,000 or more to get enough signatures to put a measure on the ballot. He’d need the support, or at least the neutrality, of AAA, Sizemore said.

“They have a huge mailing list,” he said. “They could put this on the ballot in one mailing.

“If AAA opposes it, it’s dead,” Sizemore said.

Marie Dodds, director of government affairs for AAA Oregon/Idaho, said the association takes a cautious approach to any studded-tire legislation or ballot measure.

“We have no position on that yet,” Dodds said. “They don’t have a definite measure; there’s no definite legislation. It’s still in the talking stage.”

What would sway AAA is if a measure made its members less safe, Dodds said. “If we feel any kind of measure would have a negative impact on drivers or transportation safety, we would oppose it,” she said.

Getting the measure on the ballot would be only the first battle, Sizemore said. “I think it would be very polarizing.

“I don’t think it’s one of those mundane issues people say they don’t feel one way or another.”

It would also bring the urban-rural divide into sharp focus. Sizemore said he would support only a ban that exempted drivers east of the Cascades. “If you go to Bend, Redmond, places where they have winter, people will die if you don’t have studded tires.

“I think he could make the case in Salem, Portland and Eugene – where people put (studded tires) on the first date they’re legal and take them off the last day they can take them off,” he said. “They do tremendous damage to the roads, and you could justify either banning them or moving to a stud that’s less damaging.”