Metro is carrying an average of 50,000 more rail passengers each weekday than it did last August, marking a dramatic 7 percent ridership increase in what is traditionally one of the slowest months for the system.
Metro attracted a record number of passengers in July, breaking the 20 million mark for the first time in they system’s history and smashing eight of the agency’s top-10 daily ridership records.
While the transit system has seen steady ridership growth over the past decade, Metro usually sees passenger numbers jump between 2 and 3 percent a year.
The July numbers represented a 5.5 percent ridership increase from July 2007, part of a trend experts believe is tied to habit-changing high gas prices.
Ridership slows in August, when Washingtonians flee the area for vacation destinations.
But while Metro hasn’t set any all-time records this month, the system carried 7 percent more weekday passengers during the first half of August than during the same weeks last year, according to preliminary statistics.
Metro is averaging 757,000 riders per weekday, compared to 707,000 in August 2007.
The dramatic jump comes despite an August dip in gas prices to the under-$4-a-gallon range.
“I think people have gotten the message that gas prices can get high and stay there, and it may be time to make some fairly permanent adjustments to their habits,” said Ronald Kirby, transportation planning director for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
But the high cost of gas may not have been enough to deter people from their planned vacations, which may also be contributing to the Metro ridership surge in one of D.C.’s heaviest tourist months, he said.
Experts differ in opinion as to how much further gas prices will drop, but Kirby said drivers’ recent sticker shock may have been drastic enough to keep transit ridership high regardless.
“I think there will be some permanent shift, unless prices really plummet,” he said. “I think this one got everyone’s attention.”
