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NSW police have levied a penalty against an American social media personality and served two traffic infringement notices for alleged negligent driving after a large group of e-bike riders gathered on the famous Sydney landmark during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday.

The Event: A Prohibited Ride

A group of approximately 40 individuals riding electric bikes and motorbikes proceeded along the bridge’s main deck, where cycling is prohibited. The assembly then turned around and rode through the downtown area and Haymarket.

"This had potential for serious injury or fatalities," stated a senior police official David Driver on Wednesday.

Law enforcement said they did not immediately pursue the riders due to concerns for public safety but instead located the assembly at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the Botanic Gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Influencer

On Saturday, authorities stated they had served the American online personality who goes by the influencer, twenty-six, with two traffic infringement notices for negligent driving (not involving death or prior injury), carrying a fine of over five hundred dollars and three demerit points each, in relation to the bridge ride-out. They added that inquiries were continuing.

The personality reportedly has more than 3.4 million subscribers on one platform and over 1.2m on Instagram.

Influencer's Comments

The content creator gave comments to a local publication recently after the incident gained traction on digital platforms, stating he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was among the safest ride-outs I’ve ever seen," he told the publication. "I’m coming here as a guest, and I intend to abide by the laws and norms of the city. So when I decided to do a meet and greet it was not meant to include a ride-out, it was just to greet people under the bridge."

"I did not know the area well, I am to blame we found ourselves on the bridge and I had a decision to make: either the group completes the entirety of the bridge and turns around, which is a crime. Or we reverse, essentially, before entering the bridge. I chose at the time to turn around."

Broader Context on Electric Bike Rules

The spate of electric bicycles on roads nationwide has sparked growing calls for stricter rules. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, commented that non-compliant electric bikes were a "complete hazard on the road."

"Kids have done reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the harm that are coming into our ERs are truly severe," he stated. "We’ve got to make sure we stop these things entering the country [and] police are given the authority to take strong action, to take them away, to crush them, to destroy them."

NSW recorded over two hundred injuries related to ebikes in 2024. But, in the initial half of the following year, that figure surged to 233 injuries plus four deaths.