FROMMER'S GUIDE TO NYC - DON'T TAKE A CARRIAGE RIDE

Some Things Not to Do in NYC - from Frommer's travel guide 2009

Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides: Pity those poor beasts of burden. They get dragged out in the heat (though not extreme heat) and cold (though not extreme cold) with a buggy attached just to give passengers the feel of an old-world, romantic buggy ride through Central Park. But the horses look so forlorn, as if it's the last thing they want to do. And they don't even get a cut of the generous take: $40 for a 20-minute ride, $60 for 45 minutes, excluding tip. If you want a slow, leisurely ride through Central Park, minus the ripe and frequent smell of horse poop, consider an alternative called Manhattan Rickshaw Company (tel. 212/604-4729; www.manhattanrickshaw.com). The beast of burden has two legs, and pedals you and a companion in the back of a pedicab, where the rate is negotiable but is usually about $1 per minute with a $15 minimum.

Even Frommer gets the rate wrong. It is $34 for 1/2 hour with $10 for each additional 15 minutes. This is true whether you make reservations on line or take a carriage ride on the street.

If you are overcharged, call 311 while in New York City. Read the previous blog about how the carriage industry overcharges. Yikes!

visit Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages

DON'T GET TAKEN FOR A RIDE! Carriage trade rips off tourists

The horse carriage industry in New York City has long been suspected of overcharging tourists.

See this new expose by the New York Post below. Rides are supposed to be $34 for 1/2 hour with $10 for each additional 15 minutes. This is the law. Yet two Post reporters caught the drivers red handed. The picture to the right from the NY Post shows the driver who happily overcharged them.

The Post article also refers to web sites that overcharge. There is no exception. They must charge the legal amount. Yet, they charge well over $100 for rides.

If you over overcharged, call 311.

Tourists : Watch your wallets. Better yet...don't take a ride.

Taken for a ride

Carriage trade rips off tourists

By MELISSA KLEIN

November 15, 2009

Central Park's horse-drawn carriage drivers are making "hansom" profits -- charging tourists outrageous fees or shorting them on trotting time.

A standard half-hour jaunt should cost $34, according to the rates set by the city.

But more than a half-dozen drivers questioned about the price of a ride last week said it cost $34 for 20 minutes, noting that the tip wasn't included.

Longer rides are supposed to cost $10 for each additional 15 minutes, with a 45-minute ride set at $44.

But drivers quoted rates that began at $60 for a 45-minute trip, and went up from there.

The Web sites of some carriage companies show fares that are even higher, with one saying its half-hour ride is $78 and a "lover's loop" trip is $98 for 40 minutes.

One driver named Mario charged a Post reporter and photographer posing as tourists $80 for a 40-minute ride last week. He said the fee was for two, although city law clearly says rates are per trip, not per passenger.

Another driver, whose city-mandated rate card was covered by a raincoat, charged $40 for a 20-minute trip.

Stephen Malone, a carriage owner and spokesman for the Horse and Carriage Association of New York, admitted, "We don't have a half-hour ride to give" because drivers follow a designated park path that takes just 20 minutes to cover.

He said his organization was lobbying the city to make the rate structure more accurate as part of proposed changes to the carriage law. Carriage drivers, who have not had a rate increase since 1989, want to charge $50 for a 20-minute ride and $90 for 40 minutes.

Malone said customers who feel ripped off should call the city.

"We don't have a tolerance for that," he said.

The city's Department of Consumer Affairs has conducted 212 quarterly and undercover inspections of horse-drawn carriages this year and issued 37 violations, mostly for overcharging.

Danish tourists Thea Blume and Paw Knudsen said they felt bilked last week by a hansom cab driver, who went back and forth over the same path on a ride that didn't last 30 minutes. They paid $34 and didn't tip.

"This was just a waste of money," Blume said.