On this page (7)
Broad Channel, TLC taxi zone 30, is one of the quietest zones in Queens, and most of its trips cross the Cross Bay Bridge to the Rockaways. Riders started 16,944 trips here from September 2025 to August 2026, about 46 a day, 66th of Queens' 69 zones. Nearly half went to Rockaway Park (31.6%) or Hammels/Arverne (16.5%). On those trips TLC's toll rule makes the passenger pay the Cross Bay toll twice.
Broad Channel at a glance (zone 30)
TLC's lookup table lists zone 30 in Queens as a "Boro Zone", a trip-data label and not a legal line. On the TLC map its only neighbour is the Jamaica Bay zone, because Broad Channel is surrounded by water. Cross Bay Boulevard runs north from here to Howard Beach, and the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge runs south to the Rockaway Peninsula. The Jamaica Bay zone (2) has no page of its own: it had 764 pickups in the 12 months. Pickups (16,944) and drop-offs (16,961) are almost equal.
Night trips and summer trips
Broad Channel is a night zone. Saturday pickups peak at 11 p.m. and Sunday's at midnight, and 28.1% of Sunday pickups start between midnight and 5 a.m. Even weekdays peak in the evening, at 8 p.m. With so few trips, these are small numbers: the busiest hour of the week averages about 6–7 pickups.
Trips also follow the season. Pickups were about 1,100–1,300 a month from September 2025 to April 2026, then 1,654 in May, 1,864 in June and 2,059 in July.
Where trips go
Rockaway Park (31.6%) and Hammels/Arverne (16.5%) lead, both across the Cross Bay Bridge on the Rockaway Peninsula. Far Rockaway (2.7%) and Breezy Point/Fort Tilden/Riis Beach (2.5%) add more. Going north, Howard Beach takes 7.3%, JFK 4% and Ozone Park 2.9%. Only 3.2% of trips stay in Broad Channel. Rockaway Park is also where the largest share of incoming trips start (33.6%).
Sectors and pay
Almost all of the 16,944 pickups were app rides (16,739, 98.8%); yellow taxis made 202, and green cab cells are zero or hidden. App rides are longer than in Howard Beach (3.03 miles): 3.68 miles and 12.6 minutes at the median, a $19.13 fare and $15.37 to the driver before tips. Pay per engaged hour was $71.17, 8th in Queens, though it leaves out the time spent getting here. Riders tipped 5.8% of the fare, $1.58 on average. Yellow taxis had fewer than 250 trips, so their medians are blank.
The Cross Bay toll rule
TLC rules for taxis (§58-26(f)(1)) and for-hire vehicles (§59A-23(b)(1)) say:
- On a trip from Queens over the Cross Bay Veterans Bridge to the Rockaway Peninsula, the passenger pays two times the toll. Broad Channel is in Queens, so a trip from here to Rockaway Park counts.
- On a trip from the Rockaway Peninsula over the Cross Bay Bridge to Queens, the passenger pays no toll.
- The passenger pays the actual E-ZPass amount, never more.
The MTA's Rockaway/Broad Channel resident rate ($1.83) is not for "vehicles used for commercial purposes", and the MTA page does not say how that applies to TLC plates; ask E-ZPass before counting on it. More: Cross Bay Bridge and the Rockaway return-toll rule.
Broad Channel is in the Hail Zone (Chapter 51); FHV drivers still need a base booking (80-19(c)(1)). DOT data showed no relief stand or taxi-stand sign here (checked 2026-10-12).
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.
- Broad Channel: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 30 (Broad Channel, 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.
- Broad Channel: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 30, 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.
- Broad Channel: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 30 (Broad Channel, Queens) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Broad Channel: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 30, 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 16,944 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Broad Channel: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 30, 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 16,961 drop-offs.
- Broad Channel: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 30, 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).
- Broad Channel: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 30 (Broad Channel, 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
How busy is Broad Channel for taxi and app trips?
Very quiet. TLC trip records show 16,944 pickups in zone 30 from September 2025 to August 2026, about 46 a day, 66th of Queens' 69 zones.
Where do trips from Broad Channel go?
Mostly south to the Rockaways. Rockaway Park takes 31.6% of pickups and Hammels/Arverne 16.5%. Howard Beach, to the north, takes 7.3%.
Who pays the Cross Bay Bridge toll on a trip from Broad Channel to the Rockaways?
Broad Channel is in Queens, so TLC's rule for trips from Queens over the Cross Bay Veterans Bridge to the Rockaway Peninsula applies: the passenger pays two times the toll. That is $5.60 with a New York E-ZPass at the MTA's current $2.80 rate. Coming back from the Rockaways, the passenger pays no Cross Bay toll.
When are Broad Channel pickups busiest?
Late at night on weekends. Saturday peaks at 11 p.m. and Sunday at midnight, and 28.1% of Sunday pickups start between midnight and 5 a.m.
Sources
Last reviewed against the official sources on .
- NYC TLC Trip Record Data nyc.gov
- TLC Taxi Zone Lookup Table d37ci6vzurychx.cloudfront.net
- MTA: Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge mta.info
- MTA: Tolls by vehicle type mta.info
- MTA: Resident programs mta.info
- TLC Rules, Chapter 58 (Taxicab Owners), §58-26 nyc.gov
- TLC Rules, Chapter 59 (For-Hire Vehicles), §59A-23 nyc.gov
- TLC Rules, Chapter 51 (Definitions) nyc.gov
- NYC Open Data: Taxi and FHV Relief Stands (DOT, vqu8-xef9) 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.