North Sydney Council has released a draft report of bicycle counts on the Sydney Harbour Bridge Cycleway.

The data shows that from 2002 to 2009 there was an increase in average daily traffic of 95%. For weekday traffic the increase was 118%.

On the busiest day of the year in 2010 (26 Oct) 2613 journeys were made by bicycle across the bridge. The busiest day in 2009 was Ride to Work Day (14 Oct)  with 2436 journeys made.

In peak times more than 100 journeys are made across the bridge every 15 minutes.

December data was not available at the time the report was made but we expect those figures will show an increase corresponding with the opening of the Kent Street Cycleway.

The data was sourced form the electronic counter located at the southern end of the cycleway which detects bicycle movements in both directions. Like most traffic counters it is not 100% accurate (e.g. it may not pick up bicycles passing in opposite directions or overtaking at the sensor location) and a comparison with a manual count found that the counts could be out by 30%.

You can download the full report here. The final report will be available in April.