Yes, ours are extremely slippery!

In my last house, I used to curse the carpet runner on the stairs because it was such a pain to vacuum. But now, I see it was worth the effort because our current house has bare wood (refinished about a year ago) and I and my partner have both slipped off the front edge of the treads. Not fun. So I am now shopping for runners!

If the carpet currently on your stairs doesn't allow enough wood to show at the sides, maybe you could compromise and remove it, refinish, and put back a more narrow runner instead?

I have found just the opposite. I had slipped several times on the carpet. Now it has been removed and the wood is not slippery at all.

A carpet runner can be thin and less likely to slip on, whereas broadloom is awful that way.

Two houses ago, we had wood stairs and while they were beautiful, they were extremely dangerous. I fell down them at least five times in three years, so did my husband, and we lived in terror every time we had house guests. My dad fell down them repeatedly when he was staying with us. Even my cats would slip on them!

The funny thing was that it was a rental property, and the finish on the floors was really scratchy and beaten up--the kind of finish that should honestly provide traction. I can't even imagine how dangerous a nice, smooth finish would be.

That being said, we LOVED how our stairs looked. It's a toss up.

We have a front stairway in the living room/foyer and a rear stairway off the kitchen. The rear stairs are wood and the front stairway has carpet. The wood rear stairs are much more slippery for us... I think all of us has bounced down the rear stairs at one time or another. Our dogs don't even like to use them :)

The front stairs have the same carpet which is throughout the entire upstairs and the living room but it was finished so that the wood shows at the sides. It looks very very nice...EXCEPT that we have a Bernese Mtn Dog who leaves hair on them all the time and they are a PITA to vacuum.

my neighbor put shingles on hers

We've had both. And we would never have carpet again. Too slippery. Too dusty. I'd only use carpet if the treads weren't hardwood. We always top finish in semi-gloss urethane and never polish them.

If I had the opportunity, I'd love to use stone steps. Just not as steep as those in Apoclypto, though they do provide a nice bounce to the descending severed heads.