Courage needed on the roads in winter (4)
I believe the answer is:
grit
'courage' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'on the roads in winter' is the wordplay.
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'roads in winter' becomes 'gri' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
't' put after 'gri' is 'GRIT'.
'needed' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for grit that I've seen before include "Small particles of sand etc" , "Grains of rock or sand" , "Hard particles for firmness of character" , "Indomitable courage" , "Particles of stone/sand" .)