NYC Taxi & Uber Demand on Holidays and Storm Days

In short: Most holidays are quieter than a normal day in NYC, and yellow taxis lose far more trips than Uber and Lyft. In TLC trip records for September 2025 – August 2026, Christmas Day had 30% fewer trips than an average Thursday, and Thanksgiving 12% fewer (yellow taxis: −42%). New Year's Eve was the big exception: 11% more trips than an average Wednesday, with app trips up 16%. Storm days were the slowest of all: on February 23, 2026, during a city travel ban, trips fell 73%.

We compare each day with the average for the same weekday across the 12 months, because a Monday holiday should be judged against other Mondays, not against a Saturday.

Every day of the year

The weekly wave is the strongest pattern: app trips average 593,727 on Mondays and 803,771 on Saturdays. More in demand by weekday and season.

Holidays vs a normal day

Holiday dates are from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (federal holidays; July 4, 2026 fell on a Saturday, so the observed day was Friday, July 3). We added Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and the day after Thanksgiving.

How to read the table: "vs usual" compares the holiday with the average of all 52 or so days with the same weekday in the 12 months. A value of −30 means 30% fewer trips than that weekday normally has. The average itself includes holidays and storms, so ordinary days sit slightly above it; small differences of a few percent are within normal week-to-week noise.

What stands out:

• Yellow taxis fall on almost every holiday, even when app trips hold steady. On Presidents' Day yellow trips were 19% below a usual Monday while app trips were flat.
• New Year's Eve is the best app night of the holiday calendar (769,272 app trips, +16%). Yellow trips were still 15% below a usual Wednesday.
• Christmas Day is the slowest holiday for everyone. The week after Christmas also stayed low: December 26–29 were all among the 15 slowest days.
• Columbus Day, Veterans Day and MLK Day look like ordinary days.

The taxi meter's $2.50 weekday rush hour surcharge does not apply on holidays (TLC taxi fare), so a holiday afternoon fare is a little lower too.

Storm days

Two winter storms produced the three slowest days of the year:

• Sunday, January 25, 2026: 366,946 trips (−54% vs a usual Sunday). NYC Emergency Management had issued a hazardous travel advisory for January 25–26 under a Winter Storm Warning. Monday, January 26 was down 27%.
• Monday, February 23, 2026: 186,916 trips (−73%), the slowest day. Emergency Executive Order No. 3 closed city streets to vehicles from 9 PM February 22 to noon February 23, with exemptions including for-hire vehicles carrying covered workers.

What drivers may and may not do in a travel ban: storms and emergencies guide.

The busiest days

The top days were Fridays and Saturdays in December: Saturday, December 13, 2025 had the most trips of the year (1,109,513), and Friday, December 12 had the most yellow taxi trips (180,781). Other top-10 days were Fridays and Saturdays in early and mid December, and Saturdays in November, February, April, June and January. For street closures around parades and big events, see event days and street closures. Monthly averages are in the dataset behind this chart:

More planning data: busiest hours, driver hours, trip statistics overview, Access-A-Ride questions in do I have to take Access-A-Ride trips?. Hub: money.