New South Wales police have levied a penalty against an US-based online influencer and served two traffic infringement notices for alleged reckless operation after a large group of electric bicycle users converged on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday.
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 riders subsequently reversed direction and rode through the downtown area and Haymarket.
"This had potential for people to be injured and killed," remarked NSW police assistant commissioner the officer on Wednesday.
Police indicated they did not immediately pursue the group out of safety concerns but rather found the group at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the city gardens, where they dispersed.
On Saturday, police stated they had issued the American online personality who goes by Sur Ronster, 26, with two violation tickets for careless operation (with no death or previous bodily harm), carrying a fine of $562 and three demerit points each, connected to the bridge ride-out. Officials noted that inquiries were continuing.
The personality is said to have over 3.4 million followers on YouTube and more than 1.2 million on the social media app.
The online figure spoke with a local publication recently after the incident gained traction on news sites and social media, saying he regretted giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.
"I’ll probably take responsibility. It was one of the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he told the publication. "I am a visitor here, and I intend to abide by the rules and standards of the city. When I decided to do a meet and greet it was not meant to include a group ride, it was just to greet people under 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 completes the entirety 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."
The increase of e-bikes on streets across the country has sparked increasing demands for stricter rules. The federal health minister, the minister, recently said that illegal ebikes were a "total menace on the road."
"Kids have done stupid things 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] police are given the authority to take strong action, to confiscate them, to crush them, to destroy them."
The state reported 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.
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