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NSW police have levied a penalty against an American social media personality and served two traffic infringement notices for reported reckless operation after a large group of electric bicycle users gathered on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the busy commute on Tuesday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

A gathering of around 40 people 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.

"This had a risk of people to be injured and killed," remarked a senior police official David Driver on Wednesday.

Police indicated they did not chase right away the riders out of safety concerns but instead located the assembly at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the Botanic Gardens, where they dispersed.

Fines Imposed for Content Creator

Later in the week, police announced they had served the American online personality who goes by the influencer, twenty-six, with two violation tickets for careless operation (not involving death or prior injury), with a fine of over five hundred dollars and penalty points per notice, connected to the bridge incident. They added that the investigation is ongoing.

The personality reportedly has over 3.4m subscribers on YouTube and more than 1.2m on the social media app.

Creator's Response

The online figure gave comments to a major newspaper this week after the incident spread rapidly on news sites and social media, saying he regretted giving "bike life" a bad reputation.

"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 abide by the laws and norms of the city. So when I decided to do a public meeting it was not meant to include a ride-out, it was just to greet people under the bridge."

"I did not know the area well, I am to blame we ended up on the bridge and I had two choices: either the group rides the full length of the bridge and turns around, which is a crime. Or we turn around, essentially, before we’re on the bridge. I chose at the time to go back."

Broader Context on E-Bike Regulation

The spate of e-bikes on roads nationwide has sparked increasing demands for stricter rules. 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 penny-farthing [but] the injuries that are presenting at our hospital emergency departments are truly severe," he stated. "We must make sure we stop these things coming into the country [and] officers are granted the authority to crack down, to take them away, to crush them, to destroy them."

NSW reported 226 injuries related to electric bikes in the previous year. But, in the initial half of the following year, that figure surged to 233 injuries plus four fatalities.