With horse-drawn carriages ordered off the streets of San Antonio by 2030, city council members are considering a plan that would allow a new kind of carriage ride.
Since the ordinance phasing out carriages was passed in 2024, at least two of the city’s three carriage owners have asked to introduce horseless, electric vehicle (EV) carriages.
Now a pilot program is taking shape, one that could keep the carriage companies in business while also opening up the market for newcomers to the business.
In December 2024, San Antonio City Council approved a plan to phase out horse-drawn carriages from city streets. The ban affected three owners of five companies that hold 25 horse carriage permits from the city.
The first phase took effect immediately and no new carriage permits were allowed to be issued and Animal Control Services no longer licensed new horses. Then, hours of operation were reduced by 20%.
Starting Jan. 1, 2030, no horse-drawn carriages can operate in the city center.
But the council at the time also asked city staff to bring back specifics on how a horseless variety of carriage currently operating in a few other cities could help existing carriage operators transition their business.
In a proposal presented recently to the council’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meeting, Rick Riley, assistant director for the San Antonio Police Department, said there are some cost advantages to electric over horse-drawn.
While the cost of an electric carriage can run about $20,000, the annual operating expense is about $3,500, compared to $15,000 for a horse-drawn carriage, Riley said.
In the proposal, electric carriages would be permitted under the same rules that govern the electric vehicles commonly seen on downtown streets, he added.
One exception is they would not be required to have a windshield.
As for how many carriages could be allowed, four options were placed on the table.
The first Riley discussed was a one-for-one exchange of horse permit for electric carriage permit, which could result in a maximum of 25 permits. Any exchanges would void the horse-drawn carriage permit.
Another option is similar but would level-set the permits so that every operator has the same number of permits. “We have one owner right now that has five permits [and] the other two owners have two companies with 10 permits each,” Riley said. “This would allow that owner to move up five additional EV permits, and would result in a possible 30 new EV permits.”
The third option would limit permits to seven for the two owners that currently have 10 permits each, and raise to seven the number of permits the third owner (who currently has only five) could have, bringing the total to 21.
Another option would allow only five permits per owner.
But carriage owners say comparing horse-drawn carriages to electric is like apples to oranges.
“The type of rider that is willing to pay $75 for a horse carriage ride, they’re there for the experience of a horse [not] Ubers,” said Art Martinez de Vara, an attorney representing the owners. In addition, “the average full-time driver earns over $100,000 and the average EV driver is going to earn far less. And we’re very concerned about our drivers — their mortgages and their life here in San Antonio.”
District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who serves as committee chairperson, said he prefers a plan that would potentially increase the number of carriages for hire to 30.
Councilwoman Sukh Kaur, whose District 1 encompasses downtown San Antonio, said she wanted to make certain the city was not giving preferential treatment to companies that already have the most permits or were first on the scene, thereby creating an environment where, “no one else can come in to play in the sand.”
“I think that we should open this up to the community as well,” Kaur said, adding she thinks that all EV companies have equal access to the permits.
City staff also should assist the existing carriage operators with knowing how and where to acquire EV carriages, said District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears.
McKee-Rodriguez agreed that the city, because it voted to phase out the horses, should be as helpful as possible in the transition, and suggested a pilot program that could start this year with temporary permits as soon as the operators are ready.
