Originally Posted by
Mr. Underbridge
Throw on the studs and you'd find that it's quite safe. I ride my bike to work every day, all year. I use studs when there's a realistic chance of frozen stuff. And believe it or not, freezing rain is the easiest surface to ride on when you have studs. Surface is completely smooth and the studs give great grip.
Riding in snow/ice can also be fun as hell.
The question of safety in traffic is an entirely separate one. My commute is almost exclusively MUP, so it's not an issue for me. I might rethink it if I were especially near heavy traffic on poorly treated roads.
My commute is divided between wide lanes and the WO&D to Herndon (next to Reston). I've found that ice, sleet, fresh snow are not an issue with studded tires. The issue on the WO&D is it's not plowed and 2+ inches stamped down, pitted, iced over becomes a washboard surface that pulls forcefully on the handlbars as I try to steer straight.
I find that riding around cars on the iced over street isn't difficult - the bike has much better maneuverability than the other vehicles.