Snow and ice melting of road and bridge surfaces is crucial for traffic safety，but current research on snow and ice melting techniques mainly focuses on engineering effects and technical evaluation，without the analysis and elaboration from the perspective of their mechanisms.To this end，based on the different mechanisms，this study divided snow and ice melting techniques into three types and summarized them：passive deicing，active deicing，and energy utilization deicing.This study systematically evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of traditional deicing methods such as deicing agents and mechanical deicing，analyzed two active deicing techniques，namely inhibitive freezing pavement and phase change material pavement，discussed the environmental-friendly method for road deicing by using phase change materials，and introduced the mechanisms of different energy utilization deicing techniques.This study analyzed the existing road deicing techniques，their actual application effects，and existing problems，to provide foundational support for the research of snow and ice melting on roads and bridges in cold regions.