🔗 Share this article

NSW authorities have levied a penalty against an US-based online influencer and served two driving violation citations for reported negligent driving after a large group of e-bike riders gathered on the famous Sydney landmark during peak-hour traffic on a weekday.

The Incident: A Prohibited Ride

A gathering of around 40 people riding electric bikes and motorbikes travelled along the primary roadway of the bridge, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The assembly then turned around and rode through the downtown area and Haymarket.

"There was a risk of serious injury or fatalities," stated a senior police official David Driver on the following day.

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

Fines Imposed for Influencer

Later in the week, authorities stated they had served the American online personality known as the influencer, 26, with two traffic infringement notices for careless operation (not involving death or prior injury), carrying a penalty of over five hundred dollars and penalty points each, in relation to the bridge ride-out. They added that the investigation is ongoing.

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

Influencer's Comments

The online figure spoke with a major newspaper recently after the incident gained traction on digital platforms, saying he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. That was one of the safest ride-outs I have witnessed," he said. "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 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, basically, before we’re on the bridge. I chose at the time to turn around."

Broader Context on Electric Bike Rules

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

"Young people have engaged in reckless acts on bikes ever since the penny-farthing [but] the harm that are coming into our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating," the minister said. "We must make sure we stop these things entering the country [and] officers are granted the authority to crack down, to confiscate them, to destroy them, to destroy them."

NSW recorded over two hundred injuries associated with ebikes in 2024. However, in the first seven months of the following year, that figure jumped to 233 injuries plus four deaths.