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Astoria (TLC zone 7) is the busiest place in Queens to start a ride outside the airports: about 7,022 pickups a day, 2,563,119 in the 12 months to August 2026. It is a weekend-night zone. Saturdays are about half again as busy as weekdays, and the top hour of the week is Saturday at 11 p.m. It also has curb space set aside for drivers: three relief stands and two Taxi/FHV pick-up zones.
The numbers come from TLC trip records for yellow taxis, green cabs and high-volume app services (Uber, Lyft), totaled by TLC Help. Stands and curb signs are listed from DOT's open data.
Astoria at a glance
On TLC's zone map, zone 7 touches seven zones: Long Island City/Queens Plaza (146), Old Astoria (179), Queensbridge/Ravenswood (193), Saint Michaels Cemetery/Woodside (207), Steinway (223), Sunnyside (226) and Woodside (260). TLC calls it a "Boro Zone", a data label and not a legal line.
Weekend nights rule
An average Saturday has about 9,401 pickups, Sunday about 7,938 and a weekday about 6,366. On Saturdays, pickups stay above 480 an hour from 5 p.m. to midnight, peaking at 11 p.m. (about 530). Sunday's top hour is midnight (about 519), and 24.1% of Sunday pickups start between midnight and 5 a.m.
Weekdays look different: a morning peak at 8 a.m. (about 410) and a second rise from 5 to 7 p.m.
Month by month
Pickups ran from 189,705 in September 2025 to 229,798 in December 2025. Yellow taxi pickups also peaked in winter (9,997 in January 2026) and settled near 7,700 a month in summer.
Where trips go
14.6% stay inside Astoria. Then Steinway (8.4%), Old Astoria (6.2%), Sunnyside (4.6%), Jackson Heights (4.1%) and Woodside (4.0%). LaGuardia takes 3.3%. The top ten are all in Queens.
Fares, pay and tips
The median app trip is 2.69 miles in 13.8 minutes, with a $16.12 fare and $13.23 driver pay. App riders tipped 4.7% of the fare (10th in Queens). Green cabs made 5,918 pickups (5th-most in Queens); their card riders tipped 23%.
12.2% of app pickups and 35.1% of yellow pickups paid the MTA Congestion Relief Zone fee. As of October 12, 2026 it is $1.50 per app trip and $0.75 per taxi or green cab trip, paid by the rider (MTA).
Relief stands and pick-up zones
DOT's relief-stand data (updated October 1, 2026) lists three stands, all open to taxis and FHVs with a 1-hour limit:
- 31st Street between 34th and 35th Avenues (west side), 3 spaces, posted 10:30AM-7PM all days
- 30th Avenue between Steinway Street and 38th Street (north side), 3 spaces
- 28th Avenue between 41st Street and Steinway Street (north side), 2 spaces
DOT's current sign records also show "Taxi/FHV 8AM-10PM All Days Pick-up/Drop-off Only" signs on Broadway between 30th and 31st Streets and on 31st Street between 30th Avenue and 30th Drive. These are for loading, not waiting.
Under Chapter 80 §80-19(d)(7), obey each stand's posted vehicle types and time limit. DOT says its data may not match every sign, so the sign on the street wins. Astoria is in TLC's Hail Zone; app drivers may only take base-dispatched trips (80-19(c)(1); who can pick up where).
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.
- Astoria: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 7 (Astoria, Queens) 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.
- Astoria: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 7, 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.
- Astoria: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 7 (Astoria, Queens) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Astoria: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 7, 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 2,563,119 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Astoria: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 7, 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 2,554,463 drop-offs.
- Astoria: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 7, 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).
- Astoria: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 7 (Astoria, Queens) 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
Is Astoria the busiest zone in Queens?
For pickups outside the airports, yes. TLC trip records show 2,563,119 pickups in zone 7 from September 2025 to August 2026, about 7,022 a day, the most of the 67 non-airport Queens zones. LaGuardia and JFK have more.
When is Astoria busiest?
Weekend nights. The top hour of the week is Saturday at 11 p.m. (about 530 pickups), and Sunday's top hour is midnight (about 519). An average Saturday has about 9,401 pickups, against about 6,366 on a weekday.
Where are the relief stands in Astoria?
NYC DOT's data (updated October 1, 2026) lists three, all for taxis and FHVs with a 1-hour limit: 31st Street between 34th and 35th Avenues (3 spaces, 10:30AM-7PM), 30th Avenue between Steinway Street and 38th Street (3) and 28th Avenue between 41st Street and Steinway Street (2).
Where can I pick up or drop off in Astoria?
DOT's current sign records show two 'Taxi/FHV 8AM-10PM All Days Pick-up/Drop-off Only' locations: Broadway between 30th and 31st Streets (south side) and 31st Street between 30th Avenue and 30th Drive (west side). Always read the posted sign.
How much do app drivers earn per trip from Astoria?
Median driver pay was $13.23 per trip before tips and tolls (43rd of 67). Trips are short: a median of 2.69 miles and 13.8 minutes.
Sources
Last reviewed against the official sources on .
- NYC TLC Trip Record Data nyc.gov
- TLC Taxi Zone Lookup Table d37ci6vzurychx.cloudfront.net
- 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
- TLC Rules Chapter 80: Rules Applicable to All Drivers (PDF) nyc.gov
- TLC Rules Chapter 51: Definitions (PDF) nyc.gov
- MTA: Congestion Relief Zone taxi and FHV tolls mta.info
Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll check it against the official source.
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.