🔗 Share this article

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 converged on the famous Sydney landmark during the busy commute on a weekday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

A group of around 40 individuals riding e-bikes and motorcycles travelled along the primary roadway of the bridge, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The riders then turned around and traveled through the downtown area and a nearby district.

"This had a risk of people to be injured and killed," stated a senior police official David Driver on Wednesday.

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

Fines Imposed for Influencer

On Saturday, police announced they had issued the US social media influencer who goes by the influencer, twenty-six, with two traffic infringement notices for careless operation (with no death or previous bodily harm), with a penalty of over five hundred dollars and three demerit points each, in relation to the bridge incident. They added that the investigation is ongoing.

The personality reportedly has more than 3.4 million followers on YouTube and over 1.2 million on the social media app.

Influencer's Comments

The content creator spoke with a local publication recently following the event gained traction on digital platforms, saying he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. That 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 come here respecting the laws and norms of Sydney. 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’m unfamiliar with the city, 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 turns around, an illegal act. Or we reverse, basically, before entering the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to turn around."

Broader Context on E-Bike Regulation

The spate of e-bikes on roads nationwide has sparked growing calls for regulation. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, recently said 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 hospital emergency departments are truly severe," he said. "We must make sure we prevent these things entering the country [and] officers are granted the authority to take strong action, to take them away, to crush them, to dispose of them."

The state reported 226 injuries associated with ebikes in 2024. However, in the first seven months of the following year, that number jumped to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four fatalities.