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In short: In Manhattan's business district, yellow taxis drive empty about as much as they drive with passengers. MTA data for 2025 show taxis logged 47.3 million cruising miles and 46.5 million on-trip miles there — about 50% empty. App cars (Uber, Lyft) did better: 150.1 million miles with passengers, 58.2 million cruising and 11.9 million driving to pickups, so about 26% of their miles were cruising. The first half of 2026 looks similar.
The data are the MTA's monthly Taxi and For-Hire Vehicle Miles Traveled in the Central Business District on data.ny.gov (updated September 25, 2026). The "Central Business District" is the congestion pricing zone: Manhattan at and below 60th Street.
The numbers at a glance
On-trip vs cruising, by year
Taxi on-trip miles in the district rose 20% from 2024 to 2025 (38.6M to 46.5M), the year congestion pricing began, while cruising miles rose only 4%. App on-trip miles fell 3.5%.
Month by month
Taxi cruising was highest in winter and late summer (59.6% in January 2025) and lowest in June 2026 (44.6%). App cruising was highest in January 2024 (33.4%) and January 2026 (31.0%); in 2025 the peak was August (29.9%).
Why taxis cruise more
Yellow taxis can pick up street hails, so taxi drivers often cruise to find the next rider. App cars get trips sent to them and can wait in one place between dispatches. The trip records show how central the district is to taxis: 72.4% of yellow trips were charged the congestion zone fee from September 2025 to August 2026, against 32.9% of app trips.
What an empty mile costs you
Fixed costs (car payment, insurance, plate rent) are spent whether you move or not. The extra cost of each mile you drive comes mostly from gas ($0.130 a mile) and maintenance ($0.138) in TLC's expense study for an owned gas car — about 27 cents (CNYCA, April 2025). For app drivers, TLC's pay formula already assumes empty driving: the per-mile rate is divided by a 68.5% distance utilization rate (§59D-22(b)), which is close to the 68% of district miles that carried a passenger in 2025. Full costs: cost per mile.
What "half empty" means per paid mile
When half of your miles are empty, every mile you are paid for carries one unpaid mile with it. Using the study's 27 cents of gas and maintenance per mile, each paid taxi mile in the district really carries about 54 cents of running cost, before any fixed costs. For an app car, about 68% of district miles carried a passenger in 2025 (the rest were cruising or driving to pickups), so each paid mile carries roughly 40 cents (27 ÷ 0.68). These are rough averages for the district only; outside Manhattan, the mix of empty and paid miles can be very different, and the MTA does not measure it there.
Cruising vs parking at a relief stand
Waiting parked costs no gas, but you need a legal place to stop. Relief stands let taxi and FHV drivers park for a break; see relief stands in NYC. App companies also face a separate limit on cruising time in Manhattan below 96th Street — see the cruising cap. Under congestion pricing, TLC vehicles covered by the per-trip charge plan pay the charge per passenger trip, not for driving empty; see do I pay congestion pricing driving empty?.
More: cruising miles defined, driver hours data, trip lengths, taxi vs Uber fares, congestion zone trip data, trip statistics overview and the money hub.
Frequently asked questions
How many miles do NYC taxis drive empty in Manhattan?
In 2025, yellow taxis drove 47.3 million cruising (empty) miles in the Central Business District against 46.5 million miles with passengers — about half of all their miles there, according to MTA data.
Do Uber and Lyft cars drive empty less?
Yes. In 2025 app cars logged 150.1 million on-trip miles, 58.2 million cruising miles and 11.9 million miles driving to pickups in the district, so about 26% of their miles were cruising and 68% carried a passenger.
What counts as cruising?
The MTA defines it as distance traveled while not on a trip. For app cars it means driving while logged into an app but not on a trip or on the way to a pickup. Driving to a pickup is counted separately as 'other'.
What does an empty mile cost a driver?
In TLC's expense study, gas ($0.130) and maintenance ($0.138) alone cost about 27 cents a mile for an owned gas car. Fixed costs like the car payment and insurance are paid whether you move or not.
Which area does the data cover?
Manhattan's Central Business District — the congestion pricing zone south of and including 60th Street. Miles elsewhere are not included.
Sources
Last reviewed against the official sources on .
- MTA: Taxi and For-Hire Vehicle Miles Traveled in the Central Business District (data.ny.gov 2iid-6be2) data.ny.gov
- CNYCA Supplemental Expense Report (April 2025) nyc.gov
- TLC Rule Book, Chapter 59 (§59D-03 utilization, §59D-22) nyc.gov
- TLC Trip Record Data (Sep 2025 – Aug 2026) nyc.gov
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TLC Help is not a law firm and is not affiliated with the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission or OATH. Explanations on this site are general information, not legal advice. Legal representation is provided by independent attorneys and OATH-registered representatives in our network.