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Alphabet City (TLC zone 4) has two lives in the trip data. On weekdays it is a home neighbourhood, with the busiest pickup hours at 9 a.m. and 8 a.m. On weekends it is a late-night zone: 40.5% of Sunday pickups happen between midnight and 5 a.m. In total it had 841,171 pickups from September 2025 to August 2026, about 2,305 a day, 54th of Manhattan's 69 zones. Its yellow-cab share grew clearly during the year.
Zone 4 at a glance
TLC's lookup table gives zone 4 the label "Yellow Zone". It is a label for the trip data, not a rule. The zone borders East Village, Lower East Side, Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village and Two Bridges/Seward Park. The FDR Drive runs through its East River edge, per the city's street centerline map.
When rides start and end here
Weekday pickups have a morning peak at 9 a.m. (127) and 8 a.m. (119); 17.8% of weekday pickups start between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. A smaller night peak comes at 11 p.m. Weekday drop-offs peak at 10 p.m. (182).
Weekends are much bigger. An average Saturday had 3,622 pickups, 86% more than a weekday (1,952). The top weekend hours are after midnight: Sunday at 1 a.m. averages 314 pickups, and Saturday at 1 a.m. (Friday night) 300.
A year of change: more pickups, more yellow cabs
Pickups rose from 64,774 in September 2025 to 70,382 in August 2026; the high was May 2026 (75,227). At the same time the yellow share went from 15% in November 2025 to 25% in August 2026. The yellow vs app share by zone page compares this across the city. The data shows the shift but not why it happened.
Where trips from here go
Most trips are short and local. East Village (4.7% of pickups) and Lower East Side (4.2%) are the top destinations, then Gramercy (3.0%). Riders arriving here come most often from East Village (6.1% of drop-offs) and the Lower East Side (5.5%). Only 5.4% of app pickups go to an airport.
Fares, pay and tips
Trips from here are fairly long: the median app trip is 3.12 miles and the median yellow trip 2.6 miles, with a $17.74 meter fare. Even so, the median app fare ($20.98) and driver pay ($17.02) are below the Manhattan Yellow Zone middle. Tips are low on both sides: $1.11 a trip on app rides (4.2% of the fare) and 17.5% on yellow card trips, against a Yellow Zone middle of 23.1%.
Legal lines
The zone is south of 60th Street, inside the MTA Congestion Relief Zone, but the MTA zone excludes the FDR Drive along its edge. The fee appeared on 98.7% of app pickups and 95.6% of yellow pickups, lower than in East Village or the Lower East Side; the records don't say why. Charged rides cost the rider $1.50 (app) or $0.75 (taxi) as of 2026-10-12. More in is congestion pricing charged on the FDR Drive? Green cabs had 121 pickups but may not take hails here: the zone is in the Hail Exclusionary Zone.
Stands and practical notes
Zone 4 has no relief stand and no taxi-stand sign in DOT's data (checked 2026-10-12). The nearest relief stands in DOT's list are a few blocks west in the East Village, on East 2nd, 3rd and 11th Streets (taxi and FHV) and East 1st Street and East Houston Street (taxi only). Check them in the relief stand finder.
Nearby zones
Data on this page
Aggregates of public data. They describe trips and vehicles, never individual people.
Aggregated by TLC Help from TLC trip records, Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 (pickup date; TLC publishes trip files about two months after the month ends and may revise them). 'App' = high-volume for-hire services (Uber, Lyft). Taxi records with a negative fare (reversals) are excluded. Averages, medians and rates use 'clean' trips only: 1 minute to 4 hours, more than 0 and under 150 miles, fare above $0 and under $1,000. 'Fare' is the metered fare_amount for taxis and base_passenger_fare for app trips — before tolls, tips, taxes and surcharges — so it is not what the passenger paid in total. App driver_pay is TLC's 'total driver pay (not including tolls or tips and net of commission, surcharges, or taxes)'. Tips are separate. 'Per engaged hour' divides pay by passenger time only (pickup to drop-off). It leaves out time driving to pickups and waiting for requests, so real hourly earnings are lower; it is not the TLC minimum-pay formula. Monthly cells with 1–9 trips are shown as blank (null). Pairs with fewer than 10 trips are not listed.
- Alphabet City: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 4 (Alphabet City, Manhattan) by sector, 12 months.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026Taxi tips: tip_amount records credit-card tips only (cash tips are not recorded), so taxi tip rates use credit-card trips (payment_type 1). App tips are the tips field on every trip. Tip rate = tips ÷ fare. Medians and rates need at least 250 trips in the cell (else blank); counts of 1–9 are blank. Pickup-side stats (fare, pay, tips) describe trips that START here.
- Alphabet City: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 4, on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays (all sectors).NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026Average over all such days in the window, holidays included.
- Alphabet City: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 4 (Alphabet City, Manhattan) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Alphabet City: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 4, as a share of all its pickups (12 months, all sectors).NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026Out of 841,171 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Alphabet City: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 4, as a share of all its drop-offs (12 months, all sectors).NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026Out of 796,512 drop-offs.
- Alphabet City: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 4, on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays (all sectors; hour of pickup).NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026Hour is the trip's pickup hour (TLC records both, but a trip is binned by when it started).
- Alphabet City: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 4 (Alphabet City, Manhattan) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- All 263 taxi zones: trips and key facts (map-ready) — One row per TLC taxi zone (LocationID 1–263) with pickups, drop-offs, sector mix, app driver pay, fares and tip rates — the source for zone maps, hubs and the zone explorer.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026Medians/rates need ≥250 trips (else null). labels are LocationIDs as strings; zones[] has names, boroughs, service_zone (from taxi_zone_lookup.csv), suggested slugs and neighbouring zone ids (shared boundary, from taxi_zones.zip).
Frequently asked questions
How many rides start in Alphabet City?
TLC zone 4 had 841,171 pickups from September 2025 to August 2026, about 2,305 a day. That ranked 54th of Manhattan's 69 taxi zones.
When are pickups busiest in Alphabet City?
It has two busy times. On weekdays the top hours are 9 a.m. and 8 a.m. On weekends the late night is busiest: Sunday's 1 a.m. hour averages about 314 pickups, and 40.5% of Sunday pickups happen between midnight and 5 a.m.
Are yellow taxis growing in Alphabet City?
In this data, yes. Yellow cabs did 15% of the zone's pickups in November 2025 and 25% in August 2026. The trip records show the change but not the cause, and one year is a short window.
Is there a relief stand in Alphabet City?
No. DOT's relief-stand list and sign file (checked 2026-10-12) show no relief stand or taxi-stand sign in zone 4. Neighbouring East Village has six relief stands.
Sources
Last reviewed against the official sources on .
- NYC TLC Trip Record Data nyc.gov
- TLC Taxi Zone Lookup Table d37ci6vzurychx.cloudfront.net
- MTA: Congestion Relief Zone tolls mta.info
- NYC Open Data: NYC Street Centerline (CSCL) data.cityofnewyork.us
- NYC Open Data: Taxi and FHV Relief Stands (DOT, vqu8-xef9) data.cityofnewyork.us
- NYC Open Data: Parking Regulation Locations and Signs (DOT, nfid-uabd) data.cityofnewyork.us
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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.