Unhappy trails for buggy biz
Say regs mean MORE street time
A City Hall plan to keep Central Park’s ponies off city streets could instead have them hoofin’ it up and down two heavily-trafficked avenues.
Carriage drivers say Mayor de Blasio’s latest attempt to meddle in their industry — a mandate that they move their pickup spots inside Central Park — will significantly increase the amount of time horses have to mingle with cars and trucks.
The problem, according to veteran drivers who spoke to the Daily News, is that City Hall didn’t factor in the available routes in Central Park that can be traversed by the slow-moving buggies in 20 minutes — the length of the hansom cabbies most popular tour.
“That 20-minute tour is our bread and butter,” said Ian McKeever, who has been a carriage driver for more than two decades, along with his brother Colm McKeever. “Roughly 70% of our customers choose that over the more expensive 50-minute tour. So, based on where the city wants to put us and the routes available that we can take in that time, the horses are going to be on the street much, much more — up to 12 blocks, in one case, where now we only walk one.”
In August, City Hall announced it was going to move the carriage horse pickup stands off Central Park South — where there are four places now for riders to get on board. There would be five stands in total: two new stands on 72nd St., one on the East Side and one on the West Side, one at Tavern on the Green at 67th St., one near the Central Park Zoo on the East Side and another inside the park near Center Drive and Seventh Ave.
According to the drivers, who have timed the routes, a 20-minute ride from the Center Drive location will put the horse on Central Park West for seven blocks — all the way from Central Park South to 67th St. — and force the carriage to take up an entire lane.
On the East Side, a pickup at the 72nd St. stand would be even worse — forcing horses to trot 12 blocks down busy Fifth Ave. to Central Park South, a stretch teeming with buses, tourists, taxis and pedestrians.
Currently, the carriage horses stand along the north side of Central Park South. Once they pick up a fare, they turn into the park after one city block in traffic — and in the case of the Sixth Ave. stand, they spend no time in traffic.
“It sounds really nice that we’re going into the park, but people don’t understand the consequences. Now we’re going to be 60% more on the streets — the horses will be on the street even more,” said McKeever, adding that the new stands also have no access to water.
The mayor, who famously declared in 2013 that he would abolish horse carriages on “day one” when elected, said when he first announced the new pickup spots that getting the horses off the streets was the main priority.
“Horses in traffic is a bad idea. I said that in 2013. I would like to repeat it in 2018. We decided to do what government does. We saw a policy and put it into place,” de Blasio said.
The mayor’s 2013 effort to shut down carriages failed through lack of support in the City Council. But his latest plan — which will be implemented by the Department of Transportation — can be done without Council approval.
Drivers have sought a temporary restraining order against the proposal and accused the mayor of trying again to destroy the industry with a backdoor policy.
Drivers weren’t consulted about the impending regulation change, they said — and nobody from Transportation Department came to the park to do an impact study or time the routes.
“It’s going to do the direct opposite of what it intends to do … It’s a complete farce,” said Colm McKeever.
Along with forcing horses into traffic, the new pickup places will make it more difficult for customers to find them, and hurt their business, drivers said.
“They’re putting us in places where we can’t get the rides,” said Cornelius Byrne, a driver and stable owner. “You know how important location is. People don’t go too far out of the way to find this thing.”
Marcy Miranda, a City Hall spokeswoman, said a temporary restraining order is “premature.”
“This administration cares about the well-being of horses,” Miranda said in a statement. “This proposed rule would simply change the areas where passengers can get on or off horse carriages in Central Park, and limit horses’ interaction and potential conflict with vehicular traffic.”
NYCLASS, the activist group that worked with de Blasio to try to shut down the carriage business, said it approves of the plan to get the horses in Central Park.
“We are really happy about the announcement … which would really make life better for the carriage horses,” Edita Birnkrant of NYCLASS said when the plan was unveiled.
Regardless of where the horses pick up and drop off passengers, they will still have to traverse city streets when they commute to work from their West Side stables to Central Park.