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NSW police have levied a penalty against an American social media personality and served two traffic infringement notices for reported negligent driving after a swarm of electric bicycle users converged on the famous Sydney landmark during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

A group of around 40 people operating e-bikes and motorcycles 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.

"This had potential for people to be injured and killed," stated a senior police official David Driver on Wednesday.

Police said they did not immediately pursue the group out of safety concerns but rather found the assembly at a scenic Sydney lookout near the Botanic Gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Content Creator

Later in the week, police stated they had served the American online personality who goes by Sur Ronster, 26, with two traffic infringement notices for careless operation (not involving death or prior injury), with a fine of over five hundred dollars and three demerit points per notice, in relation to the bridge incident. They added that inquiries were continuing.

The influencer reportedly has over 3.4 million followers on one platform and over 1.2m on the social media app.

Creator's Response

The content creator gave comments to a major newspaper this week following the event spread rapidly on news sites and social media, stating he regretted giving "the biking community" a bad reputation.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. That was one of the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he said. "I’m coming here as a guest, and I intend to abide by the rules and standards of the city. So when I decided to do a public meeting it did not involve a ride-out, it was just to say hi under the bridge."

"I did not know the area well, 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 turns around, which is a crime. Or we reverse, essentially, before we’re on the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to turn around."

Broader Context on Electric Bike Rules

The increase of e-bikes on roads nationwide has prompted growing calls for regulation. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, commented that illegal ebikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Young people have engaged in stupid things on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the injuries that are presenting at our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating," the minister stated. "We must make sure we prevent these things entering the country [and] police are granted the authority to crack down, to confiscate them, to destroy them, to destroy them."

The state recorded over two hundred injuries related to electric bikes in the previous year. However, in the initial half of the following year, that figure surged to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four deaths.