The Wall Tax

The ice is here. Up on the Oak St. bend, the lakefront path now gets covered by a sheet of ice overnight. You know how it goes: high waves lick the pavement, soaking it permanently, and the low temperatures do the rest.

Beware, then, when you ride through that patch. Tamara took a spill yesterday (Tuesday), and witnessed the misfortune of another unaware cyclist. The slippery conditions were the topic du jour at the bike station today. A cyclist was taken away by an ambulance.

This problem is important enough. The treacherous ice sheet cuts the heavily transited north-south bike artery into two disconnected legs. The few brave ones who dare walking (or riding!) the ice risk coming out with bruises, cracked helmets and eyeglasses, and broken bones. I know a person who once chipped his hipbone as a result of one such fall and was injured for months.

The solution appears simple: set up a barrier so that the waves won’t reach the bike lane. A wall right by the edge of the lake, along the bend, seems like the obvious solution to me. A two-meter-high parapet would suffice.

I don’t see any aesthetic concerns: the lake would still be visible from Lake Shore Drive and its west side, because the lake sits so much lower. And the wall would only block the lake view from the path along a brief stretch.

An alternative answer would consist of dumping blocks of concrete in the lake, right by the edge of the path, effectively pushing the shore outwards and making the waves break further away from the path, instead of on the path. Basically, something similar to what we have at the Promontory Point. This second solution is probably less effective, and I can’t imagine it being prettier than the wall, but I understand why some people would prefer it.

The main point is: this is an easy problem to solve. Cheaply. A few tens of thousands of dollars would make cyclists happier and safer for decades to come. Would riders be willing to pay a tax to fund the project? If you spread the cost over all the cyclists from Chicagoland who use the path, it shouldn’t take much. I bet that a 0.1% sales tax on all bike-related products sold in the city, during one year, would buy you not a concrete, but a golden wall. Plus, Mayor Daley happens to love both bicycling infrastructure and sales taxes. No opposition from that front. (Or even better but less humorous: organize a fund-raising ride.)

What do you say? Would you be willing to pay the “Wall Tax”? Vote "YES" on "Morning Roll's Proposition"!

(Is this problem more difficult than I think it is? Am I missing something?)