This would not work for commuting in a city in winter. It might be okay if you're travelling through fields of packed snow, but it's not good for a city.

The ultimate winter commuting bike is one of the following, depending on your local city's conditions/topography:

titanium mountain bike with rigid forks, and horizontal drop-outs. v-brakes in the front, no brakes in the back, fixed gear, 26x2.0 inch studded tires. dingle cog with 2 front chainrings (ie: it's fixed gear but you have 2 available ratios to manually shift to for days with differing conditions... you could have 46x16 and 44 x 18)

OR

take an old steel mountain bike, build a new rear wheel for it out of an internally geared hub that has an internal drum brake as well, run that with 26x2.0 inch studded tires and slap on a chain tensioner (remove 2 out of the 3 chainrings). This is for hilly cities with tons of snow and ice/really variable weather, like Montreal.

OR

titanium fixed geared bike with front canti brake, 700x35 studded tires, this if for cities with less snow and more ice, more consistent winters.