A group of eshays have been labelled ‘idiots’ after footage emerged of them riding e-bikes through a busy food court.
A shocked shopper filmed the outrageous act unfold outside George Street Event Cinemas, in Sydney‘s CBD.
The footage was shared to Reddit on Wednesday and showed four teens recklessly cruising past as shoppers looked on in muted astonishment.
Social media users were unimpressed by the incident, taking aim at the infuriating abundance of e-bikes in the city.
‘Am I the only person that really hates the things?’ one said.
‘They have made central Sydney look like a scrap dealer’s yard.’
‘As great an innovation that they are, e-scooters and bikes are going to cause more and more problems in the hands of idiots,’ another said.
The rise of share bikes and scooters in Australian cities in recent years has sparked concerns about cluttered footpaths, anti-social behaviour and safety of pedestrians.
The group of young men ride through George Street Event Cinemas in Sydney
Last week, a 14-year-old boy died after he fell from an e-bike in Sydney, while accidents involving the modes of transport rose 300 per cent from 2023 to 2024.
Lime is the company that operates the e-bikes and more than 1million of them and e-scooters are used by NSW locals, but the government is putting in place regulations after an inquiry looked at their use.
It found that parking and pathway obstructions were increasing problems.
NSW Transport Minister John Graham said last month that a set of rules would encourage the benefits of e-bikes and e-scooters while ensuring the safety of pedestrians sharing the paths and roads with them.
‘We recognise the community’s concerns, particularly around device modification, fire risk, discarded shared e-bikes and poor rider behaviour, which is why we’re taking action,’ he said.
There’s about 3,000 e-bikes for hire in Sydney while another 1,500 are being used for jobs like food delivery services.
Some councils have already taken action due to safety fears with Waverley Council saying it would impound e-bikes if their operators did not reach an agreement to make their use safer and better regulated.
Waverley Mayor Will Nemesh said at the time it was being proactive rather than waiting for an accident to happen before taking action.
Aussies seem to have a love-hate relationship with e-bikes (stock image)
‘While share bikes are a State Government responsibility, Council will not stand by and wait for somebody to be injured,’ he said.
The riders who went through the food court on Wednesday were not going fast and some Aussies stuck up for the e-bikes.
‘I love them. I don’t have a car at the moment and getting up to the gym takes four minutes on the e-bike compared to 25 minutes on foot,’ one person said.
‘They’d be awesome in a country where the general population was mature though to handle it,’ another said.
Daily Mail Australia contacted NSW Police and Lime for comment.
Police said no reports of the incident were made to them.
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