🔗 Share this article

New South Wales authorities have levied a penalty against an American social media personality and served two traffic infringement notices for reported reckless operation after a swarm of electric bicycle users gathered on the famous Sydney landmark during the busy commute on Tuesday.

The Incident: A Prohibited Ride

A gathering of around 40 individuals riding electric bikes and motorbikes travelled along the bridge’s main deck, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The assembly then turned around and rode through the downtown area and a nearby district.

"There was potential for people to be injured and killed," stated a senior police official the officer on Wednesday.

Law enforcement indicated they did not immediately pursue the riders due to concerns for public safety but instead located the group at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the city gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Influencer

On Saturday, police announced they had issued the American online personality known as the influencer, 26, with two traffic infringement notices for negligent driving (with no death or previous bodily harm), carrying a fine of over five hundred dollars and three demerit points per notice, connected to the bridge incident. They added that inquiries were continuing.

The influencer is said to have more than 3.4m followers on YouTube and over 1.2 million on Instagram.

Influencer's Comments

The online figure gave comments to a local publication recently after the incident spread rapidly on news sites and social media, stating he regretted giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was among the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he told the publication. "I am a visitor here, and I intend to come here respecting the rules and standards of Sydney. So when I decided to do a public meeting it did not involve a ride-out, it was just to greet people near the bridge."

"I did not know the area well, I am to blame we found ourselves on the bridge and I had two choices: whether the group completes the entirety of the bridge and comes back, an illegal act. Or we turn around, essentially, before we’re on the bridge. I chose at the time to go back."

Broader Context on E-Bike Regulation

The spate of e-bikes on roads nationwide has prompted growing calls for stricter rules. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, commented that illegal ebikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Young people have engaged in stupid things on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the harm that are coming into our ERs are truly severe," the minister said. "We’ve got to ensure we prevent these things entering the country [and] officers are given the powers to take strong action, to confiscate them, to crush them, to destroy them."

The state recorded over two hundred injuries associated with ebikes in 2024. But, in the first seven months of the following year, that figure jumped to 233 injuries plus four fatalities.