When I lived in Metro Boston/South Shore, every winter, I would build an ice-bike with carbide studded tires (Nokians,or Schwalbe). (Fixies work best, freewheel pawls sometimes freeze, brakes fail.)
When a blizzard closed the state for 4 days, I rode each and every one of them.
Today was a pretty pessimal weather situation for biking. (Snow Friday, got slushy yesterday, really cold so all the lumps and ruts froze solid today.)
My partner and I were still able to ride all around town getting our errands done because our area does a mostly decent job of clearing snow.
Yep, the bikeways get a lot of use from people on bikes, pedestrians, wheelchair users, etc in the winter because our sidewalks are often not cleared well (bc individual property owners are supposed to do that). Municipal sidewalk plowing could help that issue, too!
I remember learning in the 1990s that multiuse paths had plowing priority on par with arterials. Separate fleet of smaller snow plows so no equipment or staff conflicts
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But when they do (as is the case here) it enables year round biking.
More cities should do it.
When a blizzard closed the state for 4 days, I rode each and every one of them.
My partner and I were still able to ride all around town getting our errands done because our area does a mostly decent job of clearing snow.
But the city also has and uses smaller bobcat style plows.