Bike commuting in winter

By the first snowfall, most of us have long ago put our bicycles away. But in every city, there are a few diehard souls who keep pedaling all winter long. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium's Karen Kelly offers a profile of the winter cyclist:

I remember the first time I saw a winter cyclist in Ottawa. It was during a snowstorm and I had just moved to the capital city of Canada. I looked out my window to see a guy on a bike plowing through a snow drift. He had one glove on the handlebars - and the other carrying a three foot long art portfolio. It was outrageous. But even more surprising - Ottawa is full of these people.

We're talking a good four months of frigid temperatures here. And there are bicycles on the road every single day. I wanted to know what could possibly motivate someone to hop on a bike when the temperature is well below freezing.
. . .

But between the cars and the weather, it's not surprising that most people assume winter cycling is dangerous. Researcher Lisa Routhier decided to take a closer look at that assumption. She recently earned a degree in environmental studies from Carleton University in Ottawa. While there, Routhier surveyed 60 winter cyclists and 62 people who don't ride in the winter. She calculated the number of riders with the number of collisions and found no increase in cllisions during the winter months. And generally, Routhier found the people on the bikes aren't really worried.

"One of the questions I asked was do you feel safe when you're riding your bike in the winter and 82 percent responded they feel safe all or most of the time when they're on their bike. And what I found and what many people will notice is that many days during the winter, the roads are actually bare and dry curb to curb. There's no difference from summer cycling conditions."