Steve Eldridge over at the Examiner notes that fewer Washingtonians are driving themselves solo to work than they were three years ago.

According to the unfortunately titled “Preliminary Draft Commuter Connections State of the Commute Survey 2007 Survey Technical Report,” the number of those in the region driving by themselves to job locations outside the home was 71 percent, compared with 74.1 percent in the 2004 survey.

This survey is put together by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s Commuter Connections office and shows that this region is going against the national trend, which shows that the number of those driving alone has gone up to 77 percent.

Encouraging stuff, especially the numbers he points out that have been compiled by CommuterPage.com, which show increases across the board in people taking Metro, riding bicycles, walking and carpooling in the the metro area.

We were curious to find out how the DCist readership stacks up to the findings of this recent study, which shows Metro and bus ridership totalling 18.7 percent, those riding their bikes or walking at 2.7 percent, carpooling at 7.6 percent, and solo drivers at 71 percent. We have a pretty good suspicion (or at least a hope) that the wonderful people who read this site drive less and take public transit even more than the rest of the metro area. And since it won’t be reflected in the poll below, if you’ve made a change to the way you commute to work in the last three years, let us know in the comments.

Photo by andertho