SAN ANTONIO – A day before it closes, the City of San Antonio’s survey on horse-drawn carriages has already received a huge response online.
The survey, which opened Jul. 25, had already received more than 47,000 responses as of Monday morning – about nine times as many as the city got for a recent budget priority survey. The survey is scheduled to stay open through Tuesday.
The city council is considering whether to ban horse-drawn carriages outright. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will discuss a possible ban at its Aug. 19 meeting, at which the survey results will be presented along with the city staff’s recommendations.
The issues have sparked passionate debate on both sides, with ban supporters focusing largely on animal welfare and traffic concerns and carriage supporters arguing they are being unfairly maligned.
The survey includes a question on how carriage operations should continue, providing four options:
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Transition horse-drawn carriages to electric carriages and pedicabs and ban horse-drawn carriages completely
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Continue horse-drawn carriages with alternate hours and move operations outside Downtown into City Parks
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Continue horse-drawn carriages with alternate hours Downtown and expand outside downtown
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Keep horse-drawn carriages operating as is
The city’s various online surveys are not designed to be statistically valid, and the city has been soliciting feedback from tourists, residents, and downtown business owners, for the horse carriage survey.
Stephanie Garcia, the owner of both Yellow Rose and H.R.H. Carriage Companies, is unsure how the results will be used.
“If it’s against us and it comes out as against us, I think they would say, ‘yeah, this is the public one.’ And I think if it’s for us, I think they’ll just ignore it,” Garcia said.
Garcia said she’s worried about how the survey on the hot-button issue is being pushed outside of the city, pointing to a Facebook post by a New York-based influencer with 2.2 million followers as an example.
In a Jul. 29 post, “Cat Behavior Expert” Jackson Galaxy, who had been in San Antonio for a May convention, urged San Antonio residents and visitors to take the survey “and help decide the future of the city’s horses. We know what their vote would be, so let’s be their voice!”
But carriage supporters have their own extended reach. The Cavalry Group, which lobbies for animal-related businesses, also posted the survey on its Facebook page and encouraged its followers to take it, noting the survey “does not require the participant to be a constituent of San Antonio.”
Garcia said it’s also easy to take the survey multiple times by simply using “incognito mode” on a browser, which KSAT was able to verify.
“I’ll be honest, I’ve taken it a lot of times,” Garcia said.
Asked why, she said “Everybody else is going to be doing that. And like I say, it’s not a scientific survey.”
It’s not clear exactly how the city will account for multiple submissions, though a spokeswoman said the city is tracking IP addresses and collector IDs.
Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) co-sponsored the original request for a ban, though she has since said she is open to a compromise that would keep the carriages in operation.
She said council members will likely ask about the possibility of multiple submissions, though she also said the survey is only one tool in how the council will decide to proceed.
“This really should be going to the planning committee or more B-sessions before you have an answer,” Viagran said. “So I know some want an answer and they want this to be the end-all, be-all. But I’m going to argue that we – there’s a lot more conversation to have regarding this issue.”