Arlington Yupette's Endorsements for 2012

Hi,

Thanks for asking who A.Y. is endorsing for election and re-election next Tuesday.

So here are our endorsements:

For President and Vice-President:  Barack Obama and Joe Biden

For U.S. Senate: Tim Kaine

For U.S. House of Representatives (8th Congressional District) :  Jason Howell

For Arlington County Board:  Anyone but Libby Garvey

Arlington County Bond Referenda:  NO to Parks Bond funding aka Gerald J. Fisette Aquatics Center

For Amendments to the Virginia Constitution: YES to protecting Virginians from land grabs by developers and their local government cronies under the guise of  'Economic Development'.

Cindy

Chris Zimmerman's Legacy to Arlington: Pike Streetcar Will Injure Many

Hello,

We received an e-mail from a bicyclist in Toronto alerting us to the following research paper in the current American Journal of Public Health: 'Route Infrastructure and the Risk of Injuries to Bicyclists: A Case-Crossover Study'.

Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto studied 690 bicycle accidents that occurred in Toronto and Vancouver. Of the crashes that occurred in Toronto, streetcar tracks directly accounted for 31.5% of all bike accidents in the city that led. (The study did not count collisions between bicyclists and streetcars).

The research project determined that of the accidents involving tracks, 19 cyclists (19.8 percent) said their tires slipped on the tracks and 77 (80.2 percent) said their tires got caught in the tracks.

St. Michaels' Hospital was one of four hospitals in Toronto and Vancouver whose patients were tracked in the study. (At least 20 hospitals and healthcare facilities in and around Toronto provide general medical services for bicycle accident-related injuries).

Why is Arlington going forward with this dangerous streetcar system?