It's like 'choosing' to slip through the snow wearing Oxford shoes, or, put on a pair of boots.
All of these comments about bad driving in the W. Coast, about 50% of this is just everyone has completely the wrong tires.
Snow is no stranger in Scotland either, and there's no snow tyres requirement in the UK.
Germany has a law that states you must have winter tyres or all-year tyres from October to Easter ("Oktober bis Ostern" - O to O).
Drive up to Tiffindell Ski Resort in South Affrica (8,920 ft up) in whatever you have - donkey cart, bicyle, 4x4... That gets snowed in regularly, and there's a just a hand-made "4WD recommended" sign at the bottom of the mountain.
I totally get the confusion.
... and why people are driving around in smash up derbies with just 2 inches of snow.
I'm only just saying 'there isn't that much confusion' elsewhere, it's not like Bostonians have super magical driving ability.
They mostly just have winter tires.
Winter tires with proper 4x4 and ABS etc. can be a pretty safe package.
But what really happens is we have a lot of people on summer tires or the crappiest of all season commodity tires. As long as you don't have to do an emergency stop or an evasive maneuver, they seem like they're adequate for Oregon weather. But I recommend everyone with such tires try a hard stop or turn (in a big parking lot of course) with these tires when it's sub-40F.
Fortunately I live on the California coast now, but when I had to deal with snow I had a set of Hakkapeliitta snow tires (from Finland), they were incredible. I wouldn't want to risk snow driving on any generic all-weather tires.