On this page (7)
Kew Gardens (TLC zone 134) sends more of its riders to the airport than most of Queens. 10.0% of app pickups go to an airport, 5th of 67 Queens zones outside the airports, and JFK is the 4th-biggest destination. About 1,700 trips a day start here (620,663 in 12 months to August 2026). Weekday mornings bring a sharp spike of arrivals at 8 a.m.
Every figure here is from TLC trip records (yellow, green and app trips) for September 2025 to August 2026; black car and livery trips outside the apps are not included.
Kew Gardens at a glance
TLC's map gives zone 134 six neighbors: Briarwood/Jamaica Hills (28), Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (93), Forest Hills (95), Forest Park/Highland Park (96), Jamaica (130) and Richmond Hill (197). It is a different zone from Kew Gardens Hills (135). TLC labels it "Boro Zone", a data category only.
Airport trips
JFK took 6.8% of all pickups here (42,280 trips) and LaGuardia 3.2% (19,905). Only Forest Hills, trips inside Kew Gardens and Richmond Hill were bigger destinations than JFK. Yellow taxis lean even harder to the airport: 19.8% of yellow pickups went to one, and yellow trips from here have a median metered fare of $35.50 for 5.69 miles.
Airports also feed the zone: JFK sends 4.2% of drop-offs and LaGuardia 2.5%. The biggest sources of arrivals, though, are Richmond Hill (10.8%) and Forest Hills (10.5%). South Ozone Park takes 4.7% of pickups and sends 5.5% of drop-offs.
If you take a rider to the airport:
- Right after a trip to JFK, LaGuardia or Newark, check the seats and trunk for left property (80-18(a), $25 fine).
- App drivers must not accept a dispatch while parked at JFK or LaGuardia's designated passenger pickup spots (80-19(f)).
- Green cabs may not take street hails at the airports, which are in TLC's Hail Exclusionary Zone (Chapter 51).
For more, see the JFK page or the airport trip helper.
When rides start and end
Weekday drop-offs spike at 8 a.m. (about 202), about twice the 7 a.m. level (about 104). Weekday pickups peak at 8 a.m. too (about 125), with a second high at 4 and 5 p.m. (about 108 and 112). Saturday pickups peak at 6 p.m. (about 95) and Sunday at 2 p.m. (about 79).
Pickups ranged from 46,191 in September 2025 to 55,613 in March 2026.
Fares and pay
The median app trip is 3.19 miles in 14.1 minutes, with a $17.24 fare and $14.41 driver pay. Pay per engaged hour is $63.14; it leaves out waiting and driving to pickups, so real hourly earnings are lower. App riders tipped 4.4% of the fare (18th in Queens).
Green cabs made 4,745 pickups, 8th in Queens. Their trips are short (median 1.92 miles, $12.10) and card riders tipped 20.6%.
Pickup rules
Kew Gardens is in TLC's Hail Zone, so 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 are a taxi-only stand in Jackson Heights (about 3.7 miles) and a taxi/FHV stand in Woodside (about 4.1 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.
- Kew Gardens: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 134 (Kew Gardens, 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.
- Kew Gardens: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 134, 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.
- Kew Gardens: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 134 (Kew Gardens, Queens) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Kew Gardens: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 134, 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 620,663 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Kew Gardens: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 134, 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 619,408 drop-offs.
- Kew Gardens: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 134, 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).
- Kew Gardens: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 134 (Kew Gardens, 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
Do many trips from Kew Gardens go to the airport?
Yes, more than most of Queens. 10.0% of app pickups went to an airport (5th of 67 non-airport Queens zones), and 19.8% of yellow taxi pickups did. JFK alone took 6.8% of all pickups (42,280 trips) and LaGuardia 3.2%.
How busy is Kew Gardens?
TLC trip records show 620,663 pickups from September 2025 to August 2026, about 1,700 a day, 29th of the 67 Queens zones outside the airports.
When do most riders arrive in Kew Gardens?
Weekday mornings. Drop-offs at 8 a.m. on weekdays average about 202, about twice the 7 a.m. level and well above 9 a.m. (about 140).
What must I do after an airport trip?
TLC Rule 80-18(a) says that right after a trip to JFK, LaGuardia or Newark you must check the passenger area and the trunk (if used) for left property. The fine is $25.
Sources
Last reviewed against the official sources on .
- NYC TLC Trip Record Data nyc.gov
- TLC Taxi Zone Lookup Table d37ci6vzurychx.cloudfront.net
- TLC Rules Chapter 80: Rules Applicable to All Drivers (PDF) nyc.gov
- TLC Rules Chapter 51: Definitions (PDF) nyc.gov
- NYC Open Data: Taxi and FHV Relief Stands (DOT, vqu8-xef9) data.cityofnewyork.us
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.