See more of our coverage in your search results.
Horse-drawn carriages will be banned in New York City after the City Council approved a new bill Thursday that will end a Central Park tradition that’s endured for more than 150 years.
The ban passed in a veto-proof 40-7 vote, with two council members abstaining – despite a last-minute attempt to amend the proposal and push the ban back in 2030.
The ban will take hold on June 1, 2028 and outlaw horse-drawn carriages across all five boroughs.
That means about 200 carriage drivers will see their livelihoods – and entire industry – vanish from the city without a trace in less than two years.
Carriage industry workers quickly returned fire with a lawsuit against the ban, zeroing in on the complete lack of monetary compensation in the bill – which only included vague promises of job training for “new economic opportunities.”
The vote ends a years-long saga that has drawn headlines in recent summers due to horses that have collapsed or dropped dead after spending hours working through scorching hot days.
Such incidents have led to fevered discussions about the conditions the carriage horses are made to work in, with critics arguing they’re inhumane.
The controversy came to a head this summer after 18-year-old tourist Romanch Mahajan was killed when a horse carrying his family got spooked and bolted.
Mahajan was thrown from the carriage and died – with his family decrying “the industry responsible” for his death.
“If [the prior legislation] had passed, the carriages would have stopped on June 1, 2026 — Romanch died on June 17,” his father, Deepak Mahajan, said at a July City Council hearing.
“This was not an unpredictable accident. Let his death not be in vain,” he added.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin struck a deal to kill the carriage business earlier in October, citing safety as the primary factor.
But carriage workers – many of whom have said their life-savings are tied up in their operations – have questioned why Mamdani has targeted them when e-bike delivery drivers and pedicab drivers regularly flout traffic laws and cause dangerous accidents.
“Before you became mayor, you participated in a 15-day hunger strike to support yellow taxi medallion owners facing financial ruin,” longtime carriage driver Atakan Aktay said last week. “Now you are mayor, and we face the prospect of losing our businesses without guaranteed compensation.
“Where is that same compassion for us? How can you fight for one group of medallion owners while allowing another group to face financial devastation? To us, that feels hypocritical and humiliating,” Aktay added.