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The horse-drawn carriage rides in Central Park may soon come to an end. Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed this week that he and New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin have reached an agreement to phase out the horse-drawn carriage rides in Central Park with a target date of June 1, 2028, according to a report by the Epoch Times.
Mamdani said the city has “a civic responsibility to ensure that we are not leaving anybody out to dry” as the carriage rides come to an end. He said the plan will become more explicit as options are discussed. The bill is set to come up for a vote in the Council on October 22.
In response to the bill, the Transport Workers Union, which represents the carriage drivers, said it offers “no meaningful economic relief for workers,” and that it does not require the city to compensate the 68 owners of the medallions for their licenses. The union said Speaker Menin used “the tragic death of a tourist to contrive a public safety crisis” and now she wants to ban the carriage rides from Central Park.
The city is phasing out Central Park horse-drawn carriage rides after the tragic death of a tourist this summer. In a video on X, Speaker Menin announced that she supports a ban on the carriage rides. According to the union, it was the first death in more than 160 years of horse-drawn carriage rides in Central Park, when 18-year-old Indian tourist Romanch Mahajan was thrown from his carriage on June 17 when the horse became spooked and bolted. Mahajan hit his head and died. Despite this being the first death in well over 160 years of carriage rides in Central Park, the 68 owners will lose their livelihoods under the pending legislation. Meanwhile, as many as 28 people died in bike, e-bike and scooter accidents in the city in 2026 alone, and neither Menin nor Mamdani has set new safety measures for them.
Animal rights groups like NYCLASS have been waging a campaign against horse-drawn carriages in Central Park for years and flood social media with messages of outrage when a horse is involved in a mishap, such as the death of the carriage horse Deniz, who ate the poisonous plant Japanese yew growing in the park on June 9. NYCLASS celebrated the Council’s decision on X, writing: “It took the extraordinary courage, compassion, and unwavering leadership of Speaker Menin.”
The horses are well cared for, the carriage drivers contend, as they are already covered under a host of stringent rules regarding the horses’ food, work hours and temperature. The horses cannot work in temperatures of 18 degrees or colder or 90 degrees or warmer, and they are limited to an eight-hour workday and are granted five weeks of vacation each year.
Twenty-three years of experience with carriage driving in Central Park, trained as a veterinarian in Turkey, carriage owner Ahmet Bilici said, “When you take this carriage from me, I am going to lose my quarter century! No way!” He maintained the ban will affect 300 families, including the stable hands, blacksmiths and saddle makers, and that drivers should be compensated by the city. “This is my small business, my investment. It’s like my house. You’re burning my house!”
Driver Danielle Slot said she voted for Mamdani, but she thinks there is no solid justification for the ban. She acknowledges that creating a “sanctuary” for the horses would be “a really nice thought,” but she notes that it is not realistic, as each horse costs thousands of dollars per year to care for. The bill does require that owners make sure that horses are not sold to other carriage drivers out of state. “I’ve just completely lost faith in the government here, which is very sad,” Slot said.
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