Originally Posted by grolby
Ski are a must, IMO, for cold air, falling snow and cutting glare off of snow and ice. As Ghettocruiser says, any loss of peripheral vision is more than made up for by the prevention of watering, squinty eyes or snow blindness. When it comes to dealing with traffic, you're riding in wintry conditions, right? So, if you need to - and you probably do, because it might be icy or slushy or who-knows-what - slow down, or even come to a full stop, and take a good look before continuing. I haven't found that goggles are a significant enough hit to my peripheral vision, so I seldom need to actually stop just because of my goggles. If I'm stopping, it's because I don't want to ride forward through the mess while looking over my shoulder at something else. When I do, I don't resent it - goggles represent an overall massive increase in vision and safety.
that's a point. if it's snowing, or just after a fresh snowfall slow down for sure, but in toronto the main streets downtown are usually dry within a couple days, sometimes even hours. for example yesterday was -10 degrees celius, "plus windchill", but i could ride normally.
i still didn't go as fast as i can/usually do, simply because it was so cold and drivers often don't watch for bikes when
they percieve the weather to be too bad to ride in. i think it might also depend on the design of the streets in your area and the amount you are required to merge with traffic.
as a side note, i was just given a pair of safety glasses that seem to fit me 1000% better than most other cycling glasses i've tried and are still frameless on the bottom.