How Often Uber & Lyft Trips Include Tolls (Data)

In short: About 1 in 9 Uber and Lyft trips in New York City records a toll: 11% of the 251.6 million clean app trips in TLC's records from September 2025 to August 2026. When there is a toll, it averages $10.04, and the most common amount is $7.46, the NY E-ZPass car toll at most MTA crossings (rates as of October 12, 2026). Trips to Newark, out of the city and to the airports are the ones most likely to have tolls.

These numbers come from TLC's public trip records, which include a tolls field for every trip: "Total amount of all tolls paid in trip" (HVFHV data dictionary). The sector charts use the site's published datasets; the breakdowns below are TLC Help's own counts from the same files.

The numbers at a glance

App trips have tolls more often than taxis

App trips are longer on average (4.91 miles vs 3.54 for yellow taxis in the same records) and go more often to the airports and out of the city, so they cross more bridges and tunnels.

Month by month

The average toll on tolled app trips rose from $9.64 in September 2025 to $10.31 in August 2026. Part of that is the MTA's January 4, 2026 rate change: in the records, the most common app toll was $6.94 from September to December 2025 and $7.46 from January 2026 on.

Where tolled trips go

The drop-off matters more than the pickup. Almost every trip to Newark Airport records a toll, and the median is $16.79, the Port Authority peak E-ZPass car toll. Port Authority crossings only charge drivers entering New York, so that amount is consistent with the toll for the driver's way back being recorded on the trip.

Staten Island pickups have the highest typical toll ($14.92 median). That is two times $7.46, which matches a trip using two MTA crossings, or the Verrazzano charged twice. Records don't show the route, so we can't tell which. On direction rules for that bridge, see the return-toll rule.

Airport trips

The two busiest pickup zones for tolled app trips are the airports: LaGuardia (49.7% of pickups had a toll) and JFK (38.3%). Next come Midtown zones such as Times Square/Theatre District (28.0%) and Midtown South (29.4%).

The most common toll amounts

Several of these match today's posted rates: $7.46 and $3.42 are MTA NY E-ZPass car tolls (most crossings and the Henry Hudson Bridge), and $16.79 and $14.79 are Port Authority E-ZPass car tolls (peak and off-peak). Current rate cards are on NYC toll rates compared.

What the data can't tell you

• Who got the money. The tolls field is the toll total for the trip. It does not show whether the driver received it. TLC's rule §59D-17(c) requires the company to remit "the entirety of any toll paid by the Driver during a dispatched trip."
• Tolls with no rider. Tolls on the drive to a pickup or the drive back are not in trip records at all. See tolls on the way to a pickup.
• Route. Records have pickup and drop-off zones, not the crossing used.
• Which rate the driver paid. A toll recorded on the trip isn't proof of the rate charged to the driver's tag.
• Trip pay. driver_pay excludes tolls and tips, so tolls are not part of the pay figures on driver earnings.

Method: TLC Help counted every high-volume FHV trip in the 12 monthly files with trip time of 1 minute to 4 hours, distance above 0 and under 150 miles, and passenger fare above $0 and under $1,000. TLC publishes files about two months after a month ends and may revise them. Who pays the toll under TLC rules: app trips and taxi trips. More data: taxi and Uber trip statistics, tipping, WAV trip requests, active drivers and the Tolls topic.