City Plans To Move Horse Carriage Pickup Into Central Park

CENTRAL PARK, NY — The horse-drawn carriages that line up along Central Park South will be forced to move inside the confines of the park for passenger pickups as early as this fall, city officials said.

A rule change proposed Thursday by the city Department of Transportation will require carriage drivers to line up at five of Central Park's largest entrances for passenger pickups, officials said. By moving pickups inside the park, horses will spend less time on city streets and will be removed from interacting with vehicular traffic, city officials said.

"By limiting boarding of horse-drawn cabs to designated areas within Central Park, the amount of time that horses spend alongside vehicular traffic will be reduced – thus reducing potential harm to the animals," Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said in a statement.

New pickup zones will be located at the following locations:

• Grand Army Plaza: The center lane at the Grand Army Plaza entrance on Fifth Avenue and East 60th Street.
• East 72nd Street Entrance: The north curb about 50 feet from Fifth Avenue.
• West 72nd Street Entrance: The east curb about 130 feet from Central Park West.
• West 67th Street Roundabout: Next to the Tavern on the Green restaurant.
• Seventh Avenue Entrance: The east curb, about 20 feet from Central Park South.

Horse carriage operators will have the same amount of space for pickups after the rule change as they currently do on Central Park South, city officials said.

The Department of Transportation worked in consultation with the Parks Department, the Health Department and the Central Park Conservancy — an organization responsible for day-to-day upkeep of the park — to develop the new pickup rules.

A public hearing will be held in October to discuss the rule change, city officials said.

See a diagram of the new pickup zones below:

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images