Electric Scooters at 62 km/h Stopped by Vienna Police: Over 60 Fines in a Day of Inspections
Three electric scooters were stopped at 62 km/h in the city center, nearly three times the legal limit of 25 km/h. On Thursday, April 2nd, Vienna police conducted a widespread operation on non-compliant micromobility, involving the departments of Innere Stadt, Fünfhaus, and Ottakring, along with the cycling police from the Landesverkehrsabteilung Wien. The results: more than 60 fines and approximately 100 immediate administrative penalties for violations of the road code, with the drivers of the irregular vehicles unable to continue their journey.
The Non-Lying Roller Test Bench
The central tool of the inspections is a mobile roller test bench, a portable device that measures the actual maximum speed of the vehicle, bypassing any software limiter, including those altered via firmware. As reported by Heute.at, the three electric scooters identified on Thursday all reached the threshold of 62 km/h at the test bench. This is not an isolated case: in February 2026, a similar operation in the Simmering district uncovered vehicles going at 51, 55, and 76 km/h, leading to the immediate confiscation of the scooter, whose foreign driver could not pay the advance deposit. The Viennese record dates back to June 2025 when a single driver was stopped with a vehicle approaching 87 km/h.
Data from the last 14 months confirm that the Vienna Police have turned these inspections into a structured activity. The roller test bench can also unveil the most sophisticated tampering: whether it's a reprogramming of the controller, the replacement of the speed regulator, or a modification to the firmware, the roller bench always measures the actual maximum speed, not the speed stated by the onboard software.
The Phenomenon Spreads Beyond Vienna
Pressure on modified micromobility vehicles is intensifying across Europe. In Italy, the Ministry of Infrastructures has launched a national operation against illegal alterations to e-bikes and electric mopeds, with specialized technical equipment already distributed to local police forces. Penalties are severe: generic modifications to speed limiters can cost up to 4,000 euros, whereas those specifically targeting speed increases can reach 3,000 euros, with confiscation of the vehicle in the most severe cases. In Bolzano, 30 e-bikes were withdrawn from circulation because they could exceed 70 km/h without any muscular input, effectively classifying them as illegal mopeds lacking license plates, insurance, and certification.
The local police in Turin conducted 1,263 inspections in 2025 (up from 1,087 in 2024), with 27 confiscations of modified e-bikes and three businesses penalized for selling illegal vehicles. Similar inspections have taken place in Milan as well, where in the first two months of 2026, three additional confiscations have already occurred. This scenario is further complicated by the upcoming Italian requirement for license plates and insurance for electric scooters, with a deadline set for May 16, 2026, following a 60-day transitional period aimed at tracking every vehicle in circulation and significantly increasing the cost of risk for those who modify them.
Among those stopped during Thursday’s operation in Vienna was a driver who tested positive for drugs and was removed from circulation. This signals that the thorough traffic inspections in urban areas are not limited to micromobility but involve road safety across all fronts.