It’s becoming so commonplace for us to receive press releases about how Metro has recorded yet another record ridership day, we’re in danger of starting to think these figures aren’t that significant — but that would be a big mistake. Dr. Gridlock noted on Monday that since April alone, nine dates had made their way into Metro’s top dozen for ridership, which included last Friday. Now, make that ten.

Hundreds of thousands of people helped Metro set the transit agency’s third highest ridership day in the history of the 32-year-old rail system on Tuesday, June 24. Riders took 831,464 trips, which were 48,534 more trips than the same comparable day last year.

There were home games for the Nationals and the Mystics on Tuesday that contributed to the number, but there were also three top ridership days in the last week that had no special events. It’s pretty obvious skyrocketing gas prices are changing people’s commuting habits in the D.C. metro area.

Have you changed the way you get to work in the last few months? Tell us about it in the comments.

Photo by philliefan99