DC's excuse is that we don't get heavy snow often enough to justify big investment in major league snow clearing equipment. We get 10-plus inches every four years or so, and (unlike Chicago, Minneapolis, etc.) it doesn't stick around for long.
Grin and bear it is probably the right response.
If the cities get on the snow when it starts, and keep it cleared off the main routes, it costs less for some fuel and overtime, than it does to let the traffic pack it into ice then tear up all the machinery trying to get it off afterwards.
In this area, the section bosses send the guys home the day before the storm to rest, so that when they call them out, they dont have to pay overtime. There are ways to manage all things. The maintenance crews have the trucks loaded with sand and the snow plows on and they are lined up at the yard now in expectation of the next big one coming in Monday.