Why not just allow animal-drawn carriages at Central Park?
John Phillips, Executive Director of League of Humane Voters, and a founding member of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, explains, “Central Park is filled with bicyclists, runners, children and pedestrians, in addition to cars and taxis—no place for carriage horses. We can’t wait for yet another tragedy to occur before the Mayor and City Council address this problem seriously.” Horses travel to and from the stables located on 9th and 10th Avenues, between W. 37th and W. 52nd Streets. Keeping commercial horse activity adjacent to Central Park, as Council Member Tony Avella’s recently proposed legislation seeks to do, fails to acknowledge that horses would still travel this congested corridor — also a route for emergency vehicles to and from St. Vincent’s Midtown Hospital and Roosevelt Hospital, and a conduit for many vehicles going to the Lincoln Tunnel or the West Side Highway. The horrific accident in January happened on this very route back to the stables from Central Park.
