🔗 Share this article

NSW police have issued a fine against an American social media personality and served two driving violation citations for reported reckless operation following a swarm of electric bicycle users gathered on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the busy commute on Tuesday.

The Incident: A Prohibited Ride

A gathering of approximately 40 people riding electric bikes and motorbikes proceeded along the primary roadway of the bridge, where cycling is prohibited. The riders then turned around and rode through the city’s CBD and Haymarket.

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

Police said they did not immediately pursue the riders out of concerns for public safety but rather found the assembly at a scenic Sydney lookout near the city gardens, at which point they broke up.

Fines Imposed for Influencer

On Saturday, police stated they had served the US social media influencer known as Sur Ronster, twenty-six, with two traffic infringement notices for careless operation (not involving death or prior injury), with a fine of $562 and three demerit points per notice, connected to the bridge incident. Officials noted that the investigation is ongoing.

The influencer is said to have over 3.4m subscribers on YouTube and more than 1.2 million on Instagram.

Influencer's Comments

The content creator spoke with a major newspaper recently following the event spread rapidly on news sites and social media, stating he was sorry for giving "the biking community" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. That was among the safest ride-outs I’ve ever seen," he told the publication. "I am a visitor here, so I’m going to come here respecting 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 near the bridge."

"I’m unfamiliar with the city, it was my fault we found ourselves on the bridge and I had a decision to make: whether the group completes the entirety of the bridge and turns around, an illegal act. Or we reverse, basically, before entering the bridge. And I made the decision at the time to turn around."

National Debate on Electric Bike Rules

The increase of electric bicycles on roads nationwide has prompted increasing demands for regulation. A senior government official, Mark Butler, commented that non-compliant electric bikes were a "complete hazard on the road."

"Kids have done stupid things on bikes ever since the early bicycle [but] the injuries that are coming into our hospital emergency departments are absolutely devastating," the minister stated. "We’ve got to ensure we stop these things entering the country [and] police are given the authority to crack down, to confiscate them, to destroy them, to destroy them."

NSW recorded over two hundred injuries associated with ebikes in 2024. But, in the first seven months of the following year, that figure surged to 233 injuries plus four fatalities.