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NSW authorities have issued a fine against an American social media personality and handed out two driving violation citations for reported negligent driving following a large group of electric bicycle users converged on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak-hour traffic on a weekday.

The Incident: A Prohibited Ride

A gathering of around 40 people operating 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 city’s CBD and Haymarket.

"There was potential for serious injury or fatalities," stated a senior police official the officer on Wednesday.

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

Penalties Issued for Influencer

On Saturday, police stated they had served the US social media influencer known as the influencer, twenty-six, with two violation tickets for negligent driving (with no death or previous bodily harm), carrying a fine of over five hundred dollars and penalty points each, connected to the bridge ride-out. Officials noted that the investigation is ongoing.

The personality reportedly has more than 3.4m followers on one platform and over 1.2m on the social media app.

Influencer's Comments

The content creator gave comments to a local publication recently following the event spread rapidly on news sites and social media, saying he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was among the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he said. "I am a visitor here, and I intend to abide by the rules and standards of Sydney. So when I decided to do a public meeting it did not involve a group ride, 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 a decision to make: either the group completes the entirety 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."

National Debate on E-Bike Regulation

The spate of e-bikes on streets across the country has sparked growing calls for regulation. A senior government official, Mark Butler, recently said that illegal ebikes were a "complete hazard on the road."

"Young people have engaged in reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the early bicycle [but] the harm that are presenting at our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating," the minister said. "We must make sure we stop these things entering the country [and] police are granted the powers to crack down, to take them away, to destroy them, to destroy them."

NSW reported 226 injuries related to electric bikes in 2024. However, in the first seven months of the following year, that number surged to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four fatalities.