Winter Biking - Could a Toronto Gardiner Tube Lead to Cycling Innovations?

The concept of a transparent tube for part of Toronto's Gardiner Expressway shown in today's Star is something very interesting. Without having any cost figures to look at, we presume that the concept is somewhat viable, or otherwise why would anyone spend the time to come up with it at all?

The article does say that construction costs would be paid for by a toll and that there would be substantial maintenance savings because snow and weather would no longer accumulate on the road surface.

So, we wonder, if this concept is viable, could tube-style bike / pedestrian paths be far behind?

Winter cycling in Canada has long been the exclusive domain of kamikaze couriers a few fearless students. The near impossibility of winter cycling in most parts of Canada has made the bike a difficult form of transportation for people to commit to. Severe weather (not only the winter variety) proves just too tough an adversary for most commuters to even consider biking as a go-to ride. For many cyclists, a tube could be a year-round lifestyle upgrade.

Would it be possible to surmount the roadblock to super-healthy and green transport with a strategically planned network of bike tubes? The problems, costs and objections would be many but, if a tube for the Gardiner Expressway is doable, that fact brings the possibility of winter biking in tubes that much closer.