@Hinoron You can hitch a little enclosed trailer to a bicycle quite easily. People here often use them for small children or pets, but six bags of groceries would be no problem to tow. Look at videos from bike-friendly European cities, there are tons of bike trailers!
You say "if the paths, bike lanes and sidewalks are covered in irregular ice, or if the bike lanes are obstructed by heavy plowed snowdrifts on the roadside." Well, roads are hard to drive on in a car if they're not plowed too! But bike paths can be plowed and salted (or sanded) regularly just like the cars' portion of the street is. Adapting how they plow to *not* push snow onto the bike paths or sidewalks is part of the infrastructure changes that would need to happen. You don't just build bike lanes, you have to maintain them, keep them clear, ticket or arrest people who do stupid things that make them dangerous, etc.
People would have to have bikes and clothing/gear designed for commuting even in bad weather, like pants cuff holders and rain gear and better tires. That would just be a natural part of biking to work. Improving mass transit options in the winter would also be a part of that transition, making it easier for people to bike as much as possible and take mass transit when the weather really is too bad for biking (which would also be bad weather for driving and parking). Busses here have a bike rack in front, and CTA trains have places to bring your bike on board for longer trips, so you bike to the station and then from the nearest station to your final destination.
A good commuting bicycle and a trailer and all the bad weather gear *and* the occasional mass transit fees would all add up to a lot less than what it costs to buy, insure, maintain, and keep gas and oil in an automobile year-round.
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@Hinoron You can hitch a little enclosed trailer to a bicycle quite easily. People here often use them for small children or pets, but six bags of groceries would be no problem to tow. Look at videos from bike-friendly European cities, there are tons of bike trailers!
You say "if the paths, bike lanes and sidewalks are covered in irregular ice, or if the bike lanes are obstructed by heavy plowed snowdrifts on the roadside." Well, roads are hard to drive on in a car if they're not plowed too! But bike paths can be plowed and salted (or sanded) regularly just like the cars' portion of the street is. Adapting how they plow to *not* push snow onto the bike paths or sidewalks is part of the infrastructure changes that would need to happen. You don't just build bike lanes, you have to maintain them, keep them clear, ticket or arrest people who do stupid things that make them dangerous, etc.
People would have to have bikes and clothing/gear designed for commuting even in bad weather, like pants cuff holders and rain gear and better tires. That would just be a natural part of biking to work. Improving mass transit options in the winter would also be a part of that transition, making it easier for people to bike as much as possible and take mass transit when the weather really is too bad for biking (which would also be bad weather for driving and parking). Busses here have a bike rack in front, and CTA trains have places to bring your bike on board for longer trips, so you bike to the station and then from the nearest station to your final destination.
A good commuting bicycle and a trailer and all the bad weather gear *and* the occasional mass transit fees would all add up to a lot less than what it costs to buy, insure, maintain, and keep gas and oil in an automobile year-round.