There are many illegal e-bikes and e-scooters zipping around the Big Apple, but given that they are often physically indistinguishable from their legal counterparts, they have proven difficult for the NYPD to indentify and seize.

Democratic leaders of the City Council hope to change that reality by passing legislation requiring the NYPD and the city Department of Transportation (DOT) to test the use of dynamometers — treadmill-like devices that can measure the speed, power, and torque of electric micromobility devices.

To promote the legislation, City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Transportation Chair Shaun Abreu (D-Manhattan) — the bill's sponsor — released a social media video Tuesday showing a dynamometer in action. They explain how dynamometers work and how Abreu's legislation would make New York the first city to employ them in the U.S.

"It’s about the size of a treadmill, but it folds up and can be used by law enforcement on our streets to determine how fast and how powerful a micromobility device really is," Menin says in the videos.

"Cities like Amsterdam already use dynamometers to determine how fast and powerful a micromobility device is. It’s time for New York to catch up with these bike-friendly cities," the speaker added in a statement.

The video shows Menin and Abreu standing in front of a dynamometer with Martijn Vos, owner of the company Dynostar, which makes the devices, demonstrating how to use it. An individual is seen mounting an electric stand-up scooter that is affixed to the blue dynamometer.

The video also gives a close-up of the dynamometer's display screen and points to where it spits out the vehicle's speed and power metrics. "Right now, there’s no definitive way to tell on the street whether a micromobility device is legal or not," Abreu said in a statement. "Dynamometers are able to give us that answer so that enforcement is fair, and we get the dangerous, high-speed illegal devices off our streets without legal bikes getting caught up in it, as they can currently. It’s a critical piece to improving micromobility and making our streets safer for everyone."

In addition to requiring the city to test the use of dynamometers, the bill — Intro. 986 — also stipulates it must report with data on the total number of devices they test that are found to be illegal. It must also record and share the power outputs and top speeds for the illegal devices.

Council spokesperson Jack Lobel said the bill will be voted on in the "coming months." City Council members heard hours of testimony on a slew of bills designed to better regulate the growing use of e-bikes, e-scooters, and mopeds on city streets. Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. Photo Credit: Gerardo Romo / NYC Counicl The bill is one of over two dozen measures the council is considering to strengthen regulations for electric micromobility devices, the riders of which were involved in several recent dangerous crashes. A couple of those incidents, including deadly crashes on the Queensboro Bridge and in Lower Manhattan , involved devices that were found to be illegal.

Illegal e-bikes and e-scooters are particularly dangerous because they resemble legal devices but exceed legal top assisted speeds and power limits — of 25 mph and 750 watts respectively. Regardless of the top speed, since last year, e-bike and e-scooter riders in the city must abide by a 15 mph speed limit.

In the video, Menin and Abreu explain the difficulty of being able to differentiate between street legal and illegal e-micromobility devices. "A lot of the fast, dangerous devices look like regular e-bikes, but in reality can go 40, 50 miles an hour – well above the safe, legal limit of 15 miles an hour," Menin says in the video.

During an all-day hearing on e-micromobility regulation last month, NYPD officials said they found the bill "very interesting." But they questioned how they would actually operationalize using the dynamometers.

“ It would be new to any major American city,” NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters Michael Gerber said at the time. “That raises a host of questions in terms of procurement and cost and operational functionality, r ight?”

Ethan Stark-Miller is amNewYork's Transit Editor. He covers the MTA (including the subways and buses), the city Department of Transportation, and all other forms of getting around in the Big Apple. He previously covered politics for amNY.

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