And when there's a lot of snow, a bicycle is "wrong gear".
(N.b. I ride in the snow for hundreds of kilometers every winter. I know you can take a fatbike to powder snow but that's just too strenuous for most people.)
idk, people seem to commute by bike even in the winter in Anchorage, AK... It isn't like there is a fresh dump of 6" powder every day. Most places, you get a dump of snow, it's sloppy for a day or two, then back to packed down snow and ice.
When faced with something like that, I usually just switch to the bus for a day
But clearing snow takes time and equipment and main routes have the priority.
For example my commute of about 20km has about 10km that gets cleared early in the morning if humanly possible; maybe 9km that usually gets cleared during the evening; and maybe 1km that may take 3-5 days after a big snowstorm.
(N.b. I ride in the snow for hundreds of kilometers every winter. I know you can take a fatbike to powder snow but that's just too strenuous for most people.)