Less than a week after an 18-year-old tourist tragically died in a horse-drawn carriage accident last month, the rides in and around Central Park started up again. The carriage driver involved has reportedly been suspended and the horse retired. Still, we cannot turn the page, just as we cannot forget what happened.

The big questions remain, and before the heated debate over the presence of horse-drawn carriages cools down, it is time we all acknowledge that some practices and traditions, however appealing, no longer fit the world around them.

Cities today are not like those of an earlier time, when horses were an integral part of urban transportation and life moved at a different pace. New York, especially Midtown, is crowded, loud, fast-moving and unpredictable, and like other cities, it is filled with traffic, sirens, bicycles, scooters, dogs, construction,........

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