What? Snow is way worse. There's basically no comparison.
If it rains, you can still drive, walk and cycle. If it snows, your car will get stuck in the snow, your bike will get stuck in the snow, and you will completely soak your boots and pants as you slog through the snow.
Things get somewhat improved when they plough the roads, but the big problem with ploughing is that it polishes the road surface. So if you're walking or cycling, you're constantly in danger of slipping, and it's much harder to control and stop your car. And obviously if you live where it snows, you have to switch between summer and winter tyres twice a year in order to deal with it. Haven't heard of people switching between tyres because it rains.
If you're walking and it snows, you basically want to wait until someone ploughs the roads and then carpet bombs it with grit. Grit that will stay around when the snow melts and has to be cleaned up. And when they clean up the grit, it kicks up a bunch of dust and you get to breathe it in.
I don't think the elderly start falling and breaking their bones whenever a rainy season starts somewhere, but they most definitely do when it starts snowing. The couple of times that I've hurt myself in the past years have been because of snow and ice. My grandma got put in a wheelchair after breaking her leg in icy stairs.
That snow also has to be stored somewhere, so the sides of roads, sidewalks, parking lots, will all be full of massive piles of snow that will obviously eat away space that you could otherwise use. A whole sidewalk might turn into a one-person wide path.
If you're driving and it rains, it'll wipe off pretty easy. If it snows, it wipes off way worse. And if it's heavy snow, it will actually get stuck in the wipers and basically make the wipers useless. Obviously heavy rain is also an issue for visibility, but at least your wipers won't stop working.
And when spring comes, the snow melts and everywhere it wet for weeks. And since it usually fluctuates above and below 0°C, that water will freeze, melt, freeze, melt, freeze, melt, which is once again a shitty experience for all road users.
There's so many downsides to snow that I can't probably think of all of them right now.
I think it really depends. Here (northern Germany) you don't really get a lot of snow. So a bit of snow & the accompanied very dry weather is significantly nicer than the cold, damp ~0-5c rain you'd otherwise get in winter. The snow usually doesn't pile up high enough to really be a problem.
So the choice here is "slightly below 0 with a bit of snow" or "slightly above 0 with rain". It's not like crazy canadian levels of "a meter of snow and -30c" type situation.
It's possible, but it's still more difficult and dangerous. I have cycled in Finland in the snow, and it is objectively worse than in the dry or wet (albeit better than it is here in the UK).
For example, cycling across parks or crossing between lanes, there's usually the odd snow drift or edge between the ploughed lanes. If you're not careful, you can lose traction going across those or even it can be frozen solid and you can hit it like a kerb. Then when it's just starting to get cold, before the streets are being gritted, you're much more vulnerable to black ice patches.
Even on a well ploughed, gritted surface, the grip is still nowhere near comparable to the rain. As a bonus, the grit is really harsh on your bike's drivetrain, so you have to wash your bike thoroughly every time you ride.
I don't know how many times I have been linked this video, but it is several, and I imagine almost all of them have never actually cycled in Finland during the winter. But I have, for many years, and I can tell you that it does in fact suck!
If the cycle paths are not plowed, you basically have no forward momentum, and even if you manage to cycle in it, your bike will refuse to go straight, especially when the snow is wet. And if they're plowed, they're still slippery to a point that wet asphalt could never be. Ever had to hard stop a bicycle on the snow because a car pulled in front of you? Not fun.
If it rains, you can still drive, walk and cycle. If it snows, your car will get stuck in the snow, your bike will get stuck in the snow, and you will completely soak your boots and pants as you slog through the snow.
Things get somewhat improved when they plough the roads, but the big problem with ploughing is that it polishes the road surface. So if you're walking or cycling, you're constantly in danger of slipping, and it's much harder to control and stop your car. And obviously if you live where it snows, you have to switch between summer and winter tyres twice a year in order to deal with it. Haven't heard of people switching between tyres because it rains.
If you're walking and it snows, you basically want to wait until someone ploughs the roads and then carpet bombs it with grit. Grit that will stay around when the snow melts and has to be cleaned up. And when they clean up the grit, it kicks up a bunch of dust and you get to breathe it in.
I don't think the elderly start falling and breaking their bones whenever a rainy season starts somewhere, but they most definitely do when it starts snowing. The couple of times that I've hurt myself in the past years have been because of snow and ice. My grandma got put in a wheelchair after breaking her leg in icy stairs.
That snow also has to be stored somewhere, so the sides of roads, sidewalks, parking lots, will all be full of massive piles of snow that will obviously eat away space that you could otherwise use. A whole sidewalk might turn into a one-person wide path.
If you're driving and it rains, it'll wipe off pretty easy. If it snows, it wipes off way worse. And if it's heavy snow, it will actually get stuck in the wipers and basically make the wipers useless. Obviously heavy rain is also an issue for visibility, but at least your wipers won't stop working.
And when spring comes, the snow melts and everywhere it wet for weeks. And since it usually fluctuates above and below 0°C, that water will freeze, melt, freeze, melt, freeze, melt, which is once again a shitty experience for all road users.
There's so many downsides to snow that I can't probably think of all of them right now.