NEW YORK, N.Y. — Horse-drawn carriage rides in Central Park are on track to end after the New York City Council approved a ban on Thursday by a 40 to 7 margin, with two members not voting either way.
The bill now goes to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has said he backs ending the rides but has also raised worries about protecting the workers who depend on them. If he signs it, the ban begins June 1, 2028. Council Speaker Julie Menin said the long runway is meant to give the roughly 150 drivers time to land new jobs, and that the measure calls for looking into possible payments to license holders.
The law also bars owners of the close to 200 carriage horses from selling the animals for slaughter or handing them off to other carriage operators. The union that represents the drivers has promised to fight the measure in court.
The fight over the carriages has stretched across many years at City Hall. Opponents argue the horses do not belong amid Manhattan traffic, exhaust and crowds, citing collapses, deaths of several horses and runaway incidents, including a June case in which a horse broke loose and killed an 18-year-old visitor from India. Backers counter that the rides, which now cost about $150 for 45 minutes, are a piece of city history and a source of jobs. The Central Park Conservancy, which runs the park, came out in favor of a ban on public health and safety grounds.
Central Park draws about 42 million visits a year, making it the busiest urban park in the country, and the carriage line along its southern edge has been a fixture for generations of tourists and couples. Rides have shown up in well-known films and TV shows, and some drivers charge several hundred dollars for a marriage proposal trip. Supporters of the ban said this past summer, with its string of incidents, finally tipped the council toward a vote.
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