dfrwt

You need to understand how each product, wood or synthetic, behaves under the prevailing weather conditions. I am currently putting in a deck in Anchorage, Alaska. The various synthetic deck materials all have the same problem, they are slick under moderately cold conditions with fog. Wood is the least slick of the alternatives as long as it is stained rather than painted. I have had a painted deck. I purchased a board of each of the synthetics because the lack of yearly maintenance was appealing. Each of the synthetics underperformed wood for traction and for standing up to my powered snow broom. All of the synthetics scuffed a little when power broomed. The painted and opaque stained cedar also had performance problems with regard to traction and scuff marks. Cedar with an semi-transparent stain and transparent stain had good traction throughout the winter and when scuffed the wood took on a "trendy" distressed look. Ipe held up well without any treatment other than waterproofing, scuffed the least of all the products, and had good traction, but I can't afford doing my whole deck in ipe. I ended up with cedar.

The deck in the front of my house is also cedar. It is in its third year. I use a clear, cedar siding and decking preservative after I powerwash it each year. It takes about as much time as it would take me to strip and wax my kitchen floor. It looks as good as the day I put it in.

I would be interested in the technical results from your testing that shows titanium transmitting more of the force than steel.