Gritting doesn't really help with snow, it's main use is as an anti-freeze for stopping ice forming on roads. For heavy snow fall like we've had we really need ploughs but there simply aren't enough in this country.
Yeah spot on.
I lived in Canada for a couple of years and there they have these huge snow ploughs that will push all the snow off the highways. They can do it at some speed as well.
For side roads, car parks etc. they tend to use JCB type machines, as obviously you need to be a bit more careful about where you put the excess snow, as obviously on a highway it doesn't matter if it all goes to the side as there is no pavement.
Finally you have an entire industry that resolves around snow clearing. A lot of companies that do gardening and landscaping will switch to snow clearing during winter. So you can pay to have your property cleared of snow.
Trouble is in this country, unless we keep getting severe winters, it's not worth investing in snow ploughs. Snow clearing businesses aren't going to be created unless it's regular enough to make a profit.
One other difference to the past life in England, is that my parents and my grandparents tell me that when it snowed, all the men would lived on each road would help clear their road together. So that way it was clear all the way to the main roads (which would be clear) then everyone could get to work.
Obviously working habits have changed and there is the whole health and safety nonsense now about if you have cleared snow and somebody injures themselves as the result of it.
At the end of the day though, I see a lot of people always complaining about how side roads aren't gritted... the simple fact is that there isn't enough grit or gritters to do them. Plus as already been stated, its not really the grit that solves this.
Simplest solution with snow is that the quicker you can clear it, the less of a problem it is. If cars drive all over it, so it slushes, it's when it then freezes that it's difficult to get rid off and becomes too slippery to drive on.