Smaug1 I do often ride in bad conditions on slick tires. For instance, I'll ride in mud or dirt on my pseudo-gravel bike, and it has slick-ish tires. I'm not saying this is a good idea, just that I know how to handle a bike when traction gets bad. At my age, I'm becoming more risk averse. I don't think better tread will change that. I can almost always plow through the slush/ice patches, so traction isn't the problem normally. Hmm, what am I trying to say? I guess I'm saying that slipping isn't highly likely but the consequences of slipping could be very bad. And that's why reducing the likelihood of slipping doesn't help much.

Well there is one way to reduce it realistically which is to ride Citi Bike. The tires don't have much tread. But the tires are wide and the bikes are very heavy and upright. Not only that, the bikes have Sturmey Archer drum brakes which work like champs in bad conditions. Before the snow/schmootz melts, I'm more likely to ride a Citi Bike bike before my own bike.