You've hit on the main reason I have chosen to never live where the water spends much time as a solid. I simply don't want to deal with the problem of the frozen stuff. As I see it, you often can't effectively ride anywhere but the tire track, since the sloped icy stuff on the edges isn't going to work out so well. Add in the motorists who don't have effective defrosters/wipers and are thus driving blind, and it's more of a pain than I want to deal with.

If I had to live in the northeast, midwest or western mountains, sure, I'd cope. I'd light up like a solstice tree and take the lane where the shoulder or bike lane are inadequate. I'd appreciate and use the bike paths, just like you do. Heck, we only get rain here and the paths are a joy in the winter due to the lack of crowds on them. I suppose it's similar when they are snow or ice covered.

I suspect from the tone of the OP that he thinks most of us who oppose poorly implemented bike-specific infrastructure are opposed to all bike-specific infrastructure. That's not the case. Don't expect us to support door-zone bike lanes, mandatory use laws, side-paths with intersection/driveway issues, cycletracks and bike lanes/paths to nowhere that escort us into danger or routing that makes it take twice as long as it should, but when something is done well we applaud and use it. It's a bit more nuanced than pro or anti infrastructure.