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New South Wales police have issued a fine against an American social media personality and handed out two driving violation citations for reported negligent driving following a swarm of electric bicycle users converged on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the busy commute on a weekday.

The Incident: An Illegal Gathering

A gathering of around 40 individuals operating e-bikes and motorcycles travelled along the primary roadway of the bridge, where cycling is prohibited. The riders then turned around and traveled through the city’s CBD and Haymarket.

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

Police indicated they did not chase right away the group out of concerns for public safety but rather found the assembly at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the Botanic Gardens, at which point they broke up.

Fines Imposed for Content Creator

Later in the week, authorities stated they had issued 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 $562 and three demerit points per notice, in relation to the bridge incident. They added that the investigation is ongoing.

The personality is said to have over 3.4m followers on one platform and over 1.2m on Instagram.

Influencer's Comments

The content creator spoke with a local publication recently following the event spread rapidly on news sites and social media, saying he regretted giving "the biking community" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was among the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he told the publication. "I’m coming here as a guest, and I intend to come here respecting the laws and norms of the city. So when I decided to do a public meeting it did not involve 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 a decision to make: whether the group rides the full length of the bridge and comes back, which is a crime. Or we turn around, essentially, before entering the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to go back."

National Debate on E-Bike Regulation

The increase of e-bikes on roads nationwide has prompted growing calls for regulation. The federal health minister, the minister, recently said that illegal ebikes were a "complete hazard on the road."

"Kids have done stupid things on bikes ever since the early bicycle [but] the injuries that are coming into our ERs are truly severe," he said. "We must make sure we stop these things coming into the country [and] officers are granted the powers to take strong action, to take them away, to crush them, to destroy them."

The state reported 226 injuries associated with ebikes in 2024. However, in the first seven months of 2025, that figure surged to 233 injuries plus four fatalities.