Traffic

The Sydney Harbour Bridge carries eight vehicle lanes, two train lines, a footpath and a cycleway. When it opened, the Bridge also carried two tram lines, but these were replaced with buses on 29 June 1958. Today, these southbound lanes remain separated by concrete barriers from the rest of the traffic.

On 13 July 1966, the prohibition on changing lanes on the Bridge was lifted and on 5 July 1970, a one-way toll was introduced.

Today an average of around 161,000 vehicles use the Bridge each day. When the Bridge opened in 1932 only 11,000 vehicles crossed daily. In June 1976, the one-billionth vehicle crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The first 500 million crossings took over 33 years while the second 500 million took less than 11 years. The Harbour Tunnel opened on 31 August 1992, to alleviate traffic pressure on the Bridge.