You might be interested in this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URMQ0d286hY .
Oulu is at least as cold as Chicago and has twice as much snowfall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulu#Climate vs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago#Climate . I'm not saying that _you_ would wish to cycle in December but making it practicable for many is a choice, as Oulu shows.