a) laying paving stones which have a rougher/slightly bumpy surface which would help to make it harder for ice to form and also possibly provide better grip. I accept that this could take decades to roll out across the UK as pavements are gradually replaced/relaid naturally.

b) somehow making paving stones 'black coloured' so that they absorb more heat from the sun and so hopefully at least melt more quickly when the temps do tick back up above freezing?

c) a lot of Councils are currently replacing their street lighting. I wondered whether there could be a clever way of using the underground streetlight cabling to actually heat up the pavements??!?!

Probably all a bit crazy!

The problem with getting everyone out to grit their street is that there is simply not enough grit to go round in a severe winter, as we have seen this winter.

The politicians will say that the huge amount of money required to prepare for the very occasional (and possibly becoming even rarer, with climate change) freezing winter, is simply not economic.

Any more comments?

Why are we gritting roads when snow and ice actually reduces the number of car crash fatalities? (Cars slide rather than crunching – though there are more car crashes overall)

Shouldn't we grit pavements first (we only need to do a small strip and a little grit will go a lot further) so people can walk to local shops for essentials (food, water, candles etc). Any grit left over could then be put onto the roads.

I have elaborated on this (not very eloquently) on my blog.