Ugh, I don't even know what to make of this.
I don't know what sort of surfaces you are driving on but it is rather well established fact that studded tires have better performance over non-studded tires on hard snow or ice.
On soft snow, slush, or tarmac (obviously) the studs don't offer much performance gains over proper friction tires designed for low temperatures, but you'll definitely want to have tires designed for winter when the temperature goes down.
Obviously, nothing will help you if you try to do the impossible (every tire has their limit), but I would not be driving around in wintertime without studded tires, not when even a small performance gain can make the difference between life and death - either your own, or someone else's.
I have given myself the aspiration of wanting to be a good and proper driver. One of those things means being able drive without studded or blizzak tires during winter. For my first year of driving i was pretty good at it until last saturday. I wasn't even speeding, just going 48. Of which case i'll still say i'm pretty good at it, however not the best (i know exactly what i need to work on).
Let's talk a bit about risk management.
This is not a good aspiration, it seems more like a misguided attempt to make do with equipment that was not designed for things you try to do with it. Winter tires exist for a reason.
A good and proper driver would do two things:
First, ensure that the vehicle is properly equipped for the conditions.
Second, adjust their driving to the prevalent conditions.
Third, learn the limits of themselves and their vehicle in closed road/track, and then stay well away from said limits in normal traffic.
...
three things, and almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.
Driving with same tires all year round is not a prerequisite for being a good and proper driver. The only criteria for good or poor driving is the amount of risks one takes, and the ultimate results of one's driving. Risk management is the most important thing the driver of any vehicle (in roads, water, or air) needs to be aware of, and I would personally say their skill is not defined by the lightning fast responses to keep the vehicle on the thin line between peak performance and loss of control, but instead by their ability to minimize the risks associated in vehicular transportation, and ability to get them and their passengers safely to the destination.
Speeding is a risk. Driving too fast for conditions is a risk. Not having sufficient knowledge of one's vehicle's behaviour at borderline situations is a risk.
The more risks you take, the more likely is the chance of some kind of incident. You might end up safely at your destination most of the time. Or, someone might end up with your eyes.
Using sub-standard tires is
definitely a risk. Justifying it by saying that you want to be skilled enough that you don't need better tires is not an acceptable reason for not getting winter tires fitted on your vehicle. It's a
terrible reason and I urge you to reconsider it.
It is, effectively, analogous to saying that, let's say an airline pilot decided to disable the ILS (instrument landing system) on their airplane because they felt they wanted to be a "good and proper pilot" rather than letting the autopilot deal with the approach/landing. Certainly, in good conditions they would likely be able to perform a visual approach with vectors, but in worse conditions, even finding the airport (much less aligning the aircraft with the runway for landing in final approach) is difficult and has, in fact, resulted in numerous accidents in the category of "controlled flight into terrain" - basically, pilots flying their perfectly functional aircraft into ground or mountainside in blind visual conditions, not being able to pull up fast enough to avoid a collision.
Regardless of how good a driver (or a pilot) you are, there is no sense at all consciously lowering the limits of your vehicle. You'll just end up meeting those limits faster.
If you have financial limitations that prevent you from getting proper tires for the conditions, then you shouldn't drive when the conditions go below what your tires are designed for. And if you have to drive, then I would suggest reconsidering your budget allocation, and think what you could do without, and get those proper winter tires - either studded, or not, as long as they are designed for the conditions.
Just as an aside, in Finland it is mandatory to install winter qualified tires on your car during the winter months
and when necessary...
I should probably make it clear that I'm not accusing you of causing your accident. Black ice is notorious for causing sudden and unpredictable changes in the friction of road's surface, and there is typically nothing one can do once you hit it (regardless of tires or driver "skills"), the best you can do is to keep the vehicle stable and, at best case, on the road. Your choice of ditching the car was probably a good decision to prevent a more serious incident while you still had sufficient control of the vehicle to do it.
The only sure way to avoid problems with black ice is to know when the conditions are favourable to formation of black ice, and adjust your driving speed to low enough that you can manage even if you suddenly get on the ice. This is, of course, difficult (black ice weather conditions can be heavily localized) and impractical at best...
You really should get some ice track driving experience, though, just so you can get your opposite locks and clutch reflexes honed, as well as improve the feeling for the road surface. It does help in managing the situations when you end up beyond the red line for whatever reason.
Good that your incident didn't result in any serious damage to you or your vehicle, though.
I have had only a few minor scares myself - never ended up breaking anything or hitting anything, but one example would be when I was coming back home and preparing to turn right off the main road (90 degree turn, obviously). Started braking at the usual spot, but this time the road had a lot less friction than usual, and I noticed the car was not going to slow down enough to make the turn at a safe speed. So, I decided to go straight instead and stopped on the bus stop after the intersection, waited there until the road was free, did an U-turn and turned off the road.
It wasn't really a loss of control situation; however I did classify it as a risk situation since I was lucky to have the intersecting road clear, no one was waiting there to join the main road. If there had been someone there, they could have easily thought I was turning right, and driven right in front of me since I would have been unable to make the turn. In this case, I had overestimated the driving conditions and the car was not slowing down as fast as I had expected: Failure to recognize the conditions and adjust driving speed/braking distances to them.
Another "too-close-for-comfort" incident involved one rather close overtake of a truck (although it was not a three-cars-aside situation, there was less time than I would have liked but once I had committed to the overtake it would have been riskier to abort than to finish it). In this case I overestimated my vehicle's acceleration and the overtake ended up taking longer than I intended.
