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Jamaica Estates (TLC zone 131) is a mid-sized zone tied closely to Jamaica. About 1,168 trips a day start here (426,172 in the 12 months to August 2026), and almost exactly as many end here. Jamaica is the top destination (10.1%) and the top origin (12.6%). The busiest hour is 8 a.m. on weekdays.
The data is from TLC trip records for yellow taxis, green cabs and app trips (Uber, Lyft), totaled by TLC Help.
Jamaica Estates at a glance
On TLC's map, zone 131 has seven neighbors: Briarwood/Jamaica Hills (28), Fresh Meadows (98), Hillcrest/Pomonok (121), Hollis (122), Jamaica (130), Oakland Gardens (175) and Queens Village (191). Its "Boro Zone" label comes from TLC's lookup table and is only a data category.
A southeast Queens pattern
Trips from here lean south and east. The top ten destinations are Jamaica (10.1%), Jamaica Estates itself (9.5%), outside NYC (6.5%), Queens Village (5.3%), Hillcrest/Pomonok (4.7%), Hollis (4.2%), Briarwood/Jamaica Hills (4.0%), Forest Hills (3.9%), Saint Albans (3.9%) and Fresh Meadows (2.8%). Jamaica, Queens Village, Hollis and Saint Albans together take about 23.5% of pickups.
Arrivals come from the same direction, led by Jamaica (12.6%), Queens Village (6.9%) and Hollis (5.3%). South Jamaica also makes the top ten origins (2.8%). Neither airport is in either top ten, and only 3.8% of app pickups go to an airport.
When rides start
Weekdays are busiest, with about 1,214 pickups a day, against 1,148 on Saturdays and 956 on Sundays. The weekday peak is 8 a.m. (about 94), followed by 5 p.m. and 9 a.m. (about 77 and 76). Saturday's top hour is 6 p.m. (about 68), and Sunday's is 1 p.m. (about 57). Drop-offs follow the same rhythm: on weekdays they also peak at 8 a.m. (about 86), and on Sunday nights 16.2% arrive between midnight and 5 a.m. Manhattan trips are rare from here: only 2.5% of app pickups and 4.7% of yellow pickups paid the congestion fee.
Pickups ranged from 32,076 in September 2025 to 38,824 in March 2026. Yellow taxi pickups dropped from 544 to 787 a month until May 2026 to 266 to 316 a month in June to August.
Fares, pay and tips
The median app trip is 3.34 miles in 13.9 minutes, with a $17.46 fare and $14.41 driver pay. Because trips move fairly quickly, pay per engaged hour is $65.55, 21st of 67 in Queens. Engaged time is only time with a rider, so hourly earnings on the road are lower.
Tips are low. App riders tipped 2.8% of the fare (about $0.63 a trip). On yellow taxi trips paid by card, tips were just 0.9% of the fare, 50th of 61 Queens zones with enough trips to measure. TLC's data does not include cash tips.
Yellow taxis made 6,921 pickups (median 8.11 miles, $33.50) and 13,152 drop-offs. Green cabs made 317 pickups.
Pickup rules
Jamaica Estates is in TLC's Hail Zone (Chapter 51): yellow and green cabs may take street hails. App drivers may only take trips dispatched by their base (80-19(c)(1)). DOT lists no relief stand in the zone. The nearest in its data are a taxi-only stand in Jackson Heights (about 5.6 miles) and a taxi/FHV stand in Woodside (about 5.9 miles).
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.
- Jamaica Estates: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 131 (Jamaica Estates, 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.
- Jamaica Estates: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 131, 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.
- Jamaica Estates: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 131 (Jamaica Estates, Queens) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Jamaica Estates: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 131, 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 426,172 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Jamaica Estates: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 131, 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 426,861 drop-offs.
- Jamaica Estates: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 131, 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).
- Jamaica Estates: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 131 (Jamaica Estates, 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 Jamaica Estates?
TLC trip records show 426,172 pickups and 426,861 drop-offs from September 2025 to August 2026. That is about 1,168 pickups a day, 43rd of the 67 Queens zones outside the airports.
Where do trips from Jamaica Estates go?
Jamaica is first (10.1% of pickups), then trips inside Jamaica Estates (9.5%), trips leaving NYC (6.5%) and Queens Village (5.3%). Jamaica is also the biggest source of trips ending here (12.6%).
When are pickups busiest?
Weekday mornings. 8 a.m. on weekdays averages about 94 pickups, the busiest hour of the week. Saturdays peak at 6 p.m. and Sundays in the early afternoon.
Do taxi riders tip here?
On card-paid yellow taxi trips starting here, tips were only 0.9% of the fare. App riders tipped 2.8%. Cash tips are not in TLC's data.
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
- TLC Rules Chapter 51: Definitions (PDF) nyc.gov
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