All-weather radials work fine for where I live in central North Carolina. If we have an ice storm, I stay home, or go in late after the temps rise, and leave early, before they drop, and so does everybody else. Nothing runs safely on straight ice with no snow cover at all, and the ice never stays around long enough to warrant studs or chains.

1 1/2 inches of snow on cold roads will shut everything down here, though. We don't get much snow, but we get some snow most winters. Since we don't get much snow, highway maintenance depts don't have the equipment or stockpiles of salt to treat anything but the the big arteries quickly. Temps warm-up enough during the day to create melt that freezes into sheets of ice overnight on the many rural roads in the area, and it can be hard to make it out to the main highways. I do not understand, though, why so many drivers here do not just go ahead and buy all-weather radials. (I don't know why anyone who lives where it rains doesn't run all-weather radials.)

Funny, in many ways I find driving during snowy or icy weather much more treacherous here than in WV, simply because of the hazard caused by the number of drivers without experience driving on slick roads, and without all-weather tires. It is a common observation among those of us who have transplanted here from further north, or from higher elevations.

Had a VW bug for my first car in WV. Didn't put snow tires on it, but didn't need them. Did run snow tires and loaded sandbags or cinderblocks in the trunk or truckbed when necessary when I sold the VW and had vehicles without frontwheel drive back before all-weather radials came out. (still used the sandbags or cinderblocks, though.) And kept a set of chains in the trunk when I lived in Morgantown, in the northern part of WV. Only used them twice, though.

I recall that my Dad did go with studs during the winter when he was working. He travelled alot, throughout WV and western PA.