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New South Wales police have issued a fine against an American social media personality and served two traffic infringement notices for alleged negligent driving following a swarm of electric bicycle users gathered on the famous Sydney landmark during peak-hour traffic on a weekday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

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 riders then turned around and traveled through the downtown area and a nearby district.

"There was potential for people to be injured and killed," remarked a senior police official David Driver on Wednesday.

Law enforcement said they did not immediately pursue the riders out of concerns for public safety but rather found the group at a scenic Sydney lookout near the Botanic Gardens, where they dispersed.

Fines Imposed for Influencer

Later in the week, authorities announced they had served the American online personality known as the influencer, 26, 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 per notice, in relation to the bridge ride-out. Officials noted that the investigation is ongoing.

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

Creator's Response

The online figure gave comments to a major newspaper recently after the incident gained traction on news sites and social media, saying he regretted giving "the biking community" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was one of the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he told the publication. "I’m coming here as a guest, so I’m going to come here respecting the rules and standards of Sydney. When I decided to do a public meeting it was not meant to include a group ride, it was just to say hi near the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, I am to blame we ended up on the bridge and I had two choices: either the group rides the full length of the bridge and turns around, which is a crime. Or we reverse, basically, before we’re on the bridge. I chose at the time to turn around."

National Debate on E-Bike Regulation

The increase of e-bikes on roads nationwide has prompted growing calls for stricter rules. A senior government official, Mark Butler, recently said that illegal ebikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Young people have engaged in stupid things on bikes ever since the early bicycle [but] the harm that are presenting at our ERs are truly severe," the minister stated. "We’ve got to ensure we prevent these things entering the country [and] police are granted the powers to crack down, to confiscate them, to crush them, to dispose of them."

The state reported 226 injuries related to ebikes in 2024. However, in the initial half of the following year, that figure surged to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four deaths.