If your sidewalk or driveway are ice and the sand keeps blowing off, try wetting the sand in a bucket with just enough water to moisten then put down. The sand won't blow away and you've got traction!
In all fairness, this is my husband's idea. We live in very windy Illinois and have had to deal with some very bad weather. One morning, my husband came in with a bucket full of sand and ran it under the water. I thought he was nuts! He explained it to me and the light bulb came on! I just hope it will help someone out there!
Having lived in both New York and Montreal perhaps that suggestion might have worked. Now living further out west ( Alberta...above Montana), when the snow drives hard it turns into ice if you do not instantly shovel/snow-blow it off. What is left turns into ice whether you lay sand down or not.
Any application of water is an invite for a law-suit especially since we are accountable for all the front side-walks of our houses. The water would turn the lightest powder of snow, dusted with sand, into a literal walking/skating rink. Yikes! Guess it's the humidity and lay-of-the-land factor. And out here, I could get so dry and wrinkled, Dorian Grey's idea might look good to me were it possible!