Rain is a four-letter word--and so is snow. But ice is just three letters . Unless that is one slips on it. As Carl Reiner once opined, "A lot of people like snow. I find it an unnecessary freezing of water." You could, as New Zealanders do, wear socks over your shoes. Or, as The City of Toronto once urged, "Be nice--clear your ice." Ah yes, but what with?
The old and pervasive answer is, of course, with the iconic sodium chloride--salt. It melts ice by reducing the freezing point, dissolving liquid water in the ice. It is also highly corrosive to infrastructure--and an extremely effective if often unwanted herbicide.