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New South Wales authorities have levied a penalty against an US-based online influencer and served two driving violation citations for alleged negligent driving after a large group of electric bicycle users converged on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the busy commute on a weekday.

The Incident: An Illegal Gathering

A group of around 40 individuals riding electric bikes and motorbikes proceeded along the primary roadway of the bridge, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The riders subsequently reversed direction and rode through the city’s CBD and a nearby district.

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

Police said they did not chase right away the riders out of safety concerns but instead located the assembly at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the city gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Content Creator

On Saturday, police stated they had issued the US social media influencer known as the influencer, twenty-six, 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 each, connected to the bridge ride-out. They added that the investigation is ongoing.

The personality is said to have more than 3.4m subscribers on YouTube and more than 1.2m on the social media app.

Creator's Response

The content creator spoke with a major newspaper this week after the incident gained traction on digital platforms, stating he was sorry for giving "bike life" a bad reputation.

"I accept the blame. That was among the safest ride-outs I’ve ever seen," he told the publication. "I am a visitor here, and I intend to come here respecting the rules and standards of Sydney. When I decided to do a meet and greet it did not involve a ride-out, it was just to greet people under the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, it was my fault we found ourselves on the bridge and I had two choices: whether the group rides the full length of the bridge and comes back, which is a crime. Or we reverse, essentially, before entering the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to go back."

Broader Context on Electric Bike Rules

The increase of e-bikes on roads nationwide has sparked increasing demands for stricter rules. A senior government official, Mark Butler, recently said that non-compliant electric bikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Young people have engaged in reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the early bicycle [but] the harm that are coming into our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating," the minister said. "We’ve got to make sure we prevent these things entering the country [and] police are given the authority to crack down, to take them away, to crush them, to destroy them."

NSW recorded 226 injuries associated with electric bikes in 2024. However, in the first seven months of the following year, that number surged to 233 injuries plus four deaths.