be encountered during use in an elevator system 10 with potentially an additional factor of safety in other words the cords 28 remain at their original positions relative to the jacket 30 during use in an elevator system 10 the jacket 30 could completely envelop the cords 28 such as shown in fig2 substantially envelop the cords 28 or at least partially envelop the cords 28 referring now to fig4 shown is an embodiment of a belt 16 having 10 cords 28 arrayed along a belt width 40 the belt 16 is roughly rectangular in cross section and in some embodiments a belt width 40 is in the range of 20 50 millimeters and a belt thickness 42 is in the range of 3 8 millimeters the jacket 30 includes a traction surface 36 interactive with and contacting the drive sheave 26 and a back surface 38 opposite the traction surface 36 the back surface 38 may be interactive with other sheaves 18 such as diverter deflector or idler sheaves 18 one or more of the sheaves 18 may have a crowned sheave surface to steer or guide the belt 16 the crowned sheave surface 18 alone or in combination with other factors results in uneven pressure on the traction surface 36 and or the back surface 38 causing uneven slip and or wear of the belt 16 referring again to fig4 the belt 16 includes material strips 46 on the traction surface 36 to counteract high wear of select portions of the traction surface 36 due to for example uneven pressure on the traction surface 36 during operation of the elevator.