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Midtown East (TLC zone 162) is a yellow-cab stronghold on the East Side of Midtown. Over the 12 months to August 2026, 3,318,668 trips began here (about 9,092 a day), by TLC's count. 1,407,100 of them were yellow taxi trips (42.4%), ranking the zone 6th of 263 for yellow pickups. It runs on a weekday clock: arrivals peak at 8 a.m. and pickups at 8 p.m. LaGuardia is one of the top places trips come from and go to.
Midtown East at a glance
On TLC's map, zone 162 covers the area east of Midtown Center from about 42nd Street to 59th Street. It touches seven zones: Midtown Center (161), Midtown North (163), Upper East Side South (237), Lenox Hill West (141), Sutton Place/Turtle Bay North (229), UN/Turtle Bay South (233) and Murray Hill (170). The service_zone field in TLC's lookup says "Yellow Zone"; that field has no legal meaning.
When rides start and end
Weekdays carry this zone. An average weekday has about 10,079 pickups, a Saturday about 7,021 and a Sunday about 6,212.
- Mornings: arrivals. Weekday drop-offs peak at 8 a.m. (about 913), then 9 a.m. and 7 a.m.
- Evenings: departures. Weekday pickups peak at 8 p.m. (about 896), then 9 p.m. (802) and 6 p.m. (800). The 4–6 p.m. hours average about 2,130 pickups, more than twice the 7–9 a.m. hours (about 1,001).
- Weekends: Saturday peaks at 6 p.m. (about 503); Sunday is flat from noon to 6 p.m.
Yellow cabs take more trips out than they bring in: 1,407,100 yellow pickups against 1,198,285 yellow drop-offs. App trips are almost exactly balanced (1,911,429 pickups, 1,913,115 drop-offs).
Month by month
October 2025 was the busiest month (313,021 pickups). February 2026 (239,915) and August 2026 (246,104) were the quietest.
Where trips go and where they come from
The top destinations are outside New York City (TLC zone 265, 4.7% of pickups), LaGuardia (4.2%), Upper East Side South (4.0%) and Upper East Side North (3.2%). Trips spread widely: the top ten take only 32.4% of pickups. Airports take 10.5% of app pickups and 2.6% of yellow pickups.
For trips ending here, Upper East Side South is the top origin (5.1% of drop-offs) and LaGuardia is 2nd (4.6%).
Fares and pay
App trips from here have a median fare of $30.66 (2.87 miles, 20.4 minutes) and a median driver pay of $20.84 (before tips and tolls), with a $2.65 average tip. That pay is in the top quarter of Manhattan's "Yellow Zone" zones. Yellow trips are a median 1.56 miles and $13.50 on the meter, with a 24.1% card tip rate.
Congestion fee and hail lines
- MTA Congestion Relief Zone: by our check against the 60th Street centerline, zone 162 is fully inside the Congestion Relief Zone. As of 2026-10-12 trips to, from, within or through it pay $1.50 (app) or $0.75 (taxi), collected from the rider. Here 99.6% of app pickups and 99.1% of yellow pickups were charged. See the rate card.
- NYS congestion surcharge: the state adds $2.50 to a medallion taxi trip and $2.75 to an FHV trip from Midtown East (as of 2026-10-12) when the trip begins and ends in New York State. LaGuardia runs qualify.
- Hail Exclusionary Zone: east Midtown is inside it (Chapter 51), so green cabs may not take hails; the data shows 139 green pickups in a year. FHV street pickups: 80-19(c)(2).
Taxi stands on Lexington Avenue and nearby
Current DOT sign records (nfid-uabd, updated October 11, 2026) show taxi-stand signs on 12 street segments in zone 162: five on Lexington Avenue, two on the east side of Park Avenue between 48th and 50th Streets, two on the west side of Third Avenue, and three on side streets. One Lexington Avenue block (53rd–54th Streets, east side) also has a sign reading "For-hire vehicles only pick-up / drop-off only". There is no DOT relief stand in zone 162.
With five stand blocks on Lexington Avenue between 43rd and 56th Streets, taxi drivers here need to know the 100-foot rule: no cruising for passengers within 100 feet of a stand (80-19(a)(4)(ii)). Join a stand at the back (80-19(d)(4)). FHVs may not load at the stands (80-19(d)(2)); the block at 53rd–54th Streets is the one signed for FHV pickups and drop-offs. To read other signs, try the curb sign decoder.
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.
- Midtown East: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 162 (Midtown East, 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.
- Midtown East: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 162, 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.
- Midtown East: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 162 (Midtown East, Manhattan) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Midtown East: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 162, 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 3,318,668 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Midtown East: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 162, 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 3,114,244 drop-offs.
- Midtown East: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 162, 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).
- Midtown East: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 162 (Midtown East, 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 yellow taxi pickups are there in Midtown East?
1,407,100 in the 12 months to August 2026, which ranks zone 162 6th of all 263 TLC zones for yellow pickups. Yellow cabs had 42.4% of all pickups here, well above the Manhattan average of about 30%.
When do pickups peak in Midtown East?
Weekday evenings. The top hour is 8 p.m. (about 896 pickups on an average weekday), followed by 9 p.m. and 6 p.m. Weekends are much quieter: about 7,021 pickups on a Saturday against 10,079 on a weekday.
Where are the taxi stands in Midtown East?
Current DOT sign records show taxi-stand signs on 12 street segments in zone 162. Five are on Lexington Avenue between 43rd and 56th Streets; others are on the east side of Park Avenue (48th–50th Streets), on East 44th, East 51st and East 57th Streets, and on two blocks of Third Avenue. One Lexington Avenue block also has a 'For-hire vehicles only pick-up/drop-off only' sign.
Do many airport passengers come to Midtown East?
Yes. LaGuardia is the 2nd most common origin for trips ending here (4.6% of drop-offs), and the 2nd most common destination for trips from here (4.2% of pickups). 10.5% of app pickups go to an airport.
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 taxi and FHV tolls mta.info
- TLC Rules Chapter 80: Rules Applicable to All Drivers (PDF) nyc.gov
- TLC Rules Chapter 51: Definitions (PDF) nyc.gov
- NYS Department of Taxation and Finance: Congestion surcharge tax.ny.gov
- NYC Open Data: Street Centerline (CSCL, inkn-q76z) 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.