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New South Wales police have levied a penalty against an American social media personality and handed out two driving violation citations for reported negligent driving following a swarm of e-bike riders gathered on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the busy commute on Tuesday.

The Event: A Prohibited Ride

A group of around 40 people riding e-bikes and motorcycles travelled along the bridge’s main deck, where cycling is prohibited. The riders subsequently reversed direction and rode through the downtown area and Haymarket.

"This had a risk of serious injury or fatalities," stated NSW police assistant commissioner David Driver on Wednesday.

Police said they did not chase right away the riders out of safety concerns but instead located the group at a scenic Sydney lookout near the Botanic Gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Content Creator

On Saturday, authorities announced they had issued the American online personality known as Sur Ronster, 26, with two violation tickets for negligent driving (not involving death or prior injury), with a penalty of $562 and three demerit points per notice, in relation to the bridge incident. They added that the investigation is ongoing.

The influencer is said to have over 3.4m followers on one platform and more than 1.2 million on Instagram.

Creator's Response

The online figure spoke with a local publication this week following the event spread rapidly on news sites and social media, saying he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. That was among the safest gatherings I’ve ever seen," he said. "I am a visitor here, and I intend to come here respecting the laws and norms of the city. When I decided to do a meet and greet 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 two choices: whether the group completes the entirety of the bridge and turns around, an illegal act. Or we turn around, basically, before entering the bridge. I chose at the time to go back."

National Debate on E-Bike Regulation

The increase of e-bikes on streets across the country has sparked increasing demands for regulation. A senior government official, Mark Butler, recently said that illegal ebikes were a "total menace on the road."

"Young people have engaged in reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the penny-farthing [but] the harm that are presenting at our ERs are absolutely devastating," he stated. "We’ve got to ensure we prevent these things coming into the country [and] police are granted the authority to take strong action, to confiscate them, to destroy them, to destroy them."

The state recorded over two hundred injuries related to ebikes in the previous year. But, in the initial half of 2025, that figure surged to two hundred thirty-three injuries plus four fatalities.