You could probably Dremel a deeper routing... Might be more trouble than it's worth.

Or you could learn to skid/skip and swerve, although that would probably be tough on sidewalks on bridges...

Maybe disengaging the cable, then wrapping the end right up to the little knobby thingy on the end in BET might be a temporary soloution? That would at least prevent the straight metal on metal contact, and possibly prolong it. I wonder if solder for the last 1/2 inch from the knobby thingy might help too, but it might make it too stiff.

Another option might be running your brake super tight - if you had it so that you couldn't pull it more than 45deg then it wouldn't get the same tension. But you would run a much higher risk of endoing, esp downhill.