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OC Transpo will test new tire treads this winter to try to get buses better traction in deep snow, says the transit agency’s director of operations.

“Once you get over that five-centimetre snow accumulation on roads, that’s when most vehicles, especially our buses, tend to have traction issues,” Troy Charter said Monday, as OC Transpo was fighting its way back from a morning rush hour made difficult by snow that began Sunday afternoon and fell for most of a day.

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That happens six or seven times a year and if a tweak to the designs of bus tires can cut the number by one or two, that could save Ottawans a lot of aggravation. But it can’t come at too great a cost. The tires can’t wear out too much faster, they can’t be much noisier, they can’t perform worse on clear roads. Because like OC Transpo’s current tires, they’d be used year-round.

Nobody makes a snow tire aimed at North American transit systems because there’s no market for them, Charter said.