Penang Bridge Billboards

The Penang Bridge Highway is one of the most important access roads that connect the island of Penang with Butterworth in Peninsular Malaysia. It is the main transportation link that connects the people of Penang besides using the ferry services.

Route

Each day, thousands of vehicles commute between the island and the mainly. There are more than 2.3 million vehicles that use the Penang Bridge where they start at the Kawasan Perusahaan Bebas Perai at Seberang Prai in the mainland. From there, they are connected to the Gelugor township in the island where they can then head towards the north where Georgetown is located or the south into Bayan Lepas.

Demographics

The main group of people using the Penang Bridge are white collar executives who are travel into the island for work each morning. Besides that, public transportation that ferry children to school and tourists into Penang use this bridge daily as well.

The Penang Bridge is arguably one of the most used bridges in Malaysia. Connecting the mainland of Peninsular Malaysia with Penang Island, it was once the only road access before the second bridge was built.

Travellers on Penang Bridge

The Penang Bridge facilitates travellers from all segment groups each day. The main groups of neighbouring vehicles come from major towns and cities like Alor Setar, Perai, Bukit Mertajam, Butterworth and Ipoh. Distinctive elements making up the Penang Bridge include:

• Weekday mornings and evenings (rush hours) – A major group of vehicles during these times are single-driver cars mostly made up of working professionals, executives and white-collar workers. They commute between the mainland and the island for work. Meanwhile, there are also buses that travel on the bridge that ferry workers to and from the industrial areas (factories in Alor Setar, Butterworth, Bayan Lepas, etc).
• Non-peak hours – Between 11 am to 3 pm on weekdays, the Penang Bridge is mostly used by tourists, dignitaries and holiday-goers. It must be noted though that tourists travel on vehicles on the Penang Bridge throughout the day as they are not subjected to traffic congestion.
• Weekends – The Penang Bridge is prominently used by vehicles on weekdays as travellers get into the island and vice versa for leisure and business. Hence, the congestion is heavier during Friday evenings and Saturday mornings heading into the island while it is heavier during Sunday evenings heading back to the mainland.
• Public and school holidays – These are when the Penang Bridge are at its full capacity with those traveling in and out of the island for holidays as well as tourists from other states.

Crucial access for vehicles

What makes Penang Bridge such a significant road is that it is constantly heavily used by vehicles throughout the day. The entire stretch is 13.5 kilometres that house 2-way traffic coming in and out of Penang Island.

The tolled bridge connects 2 important towns of Penang. On the island is the region of Gelugor while the mainland is connected via Perai.

Each day, vehicles travel between the island to the mainland with vehicles heading toward the northern parts of Peninsular Malaysia like Alor Setar in Kedah and towards Perlis. Meanwhile, some head towards the southern states of Perak, Selangor, Johor and others.

Being the second-longest bridge over water in the country, the bridge was opened back in 1985 and has been in operation and heavy usage ever since.

Each day, there are an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 vehicles travelling on the Penang Bridge with an average of 2.5 million vehicles each month.