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Morningside Heights (TLC zone 166) has the highest yellow taxi share of Manhattan's 14 "Boro Zone" zones. In the 12 months to August 2026 it had 1,324,809 pickups (about 3,630 a day): 77% app, 21% yellow taxi and 1.6% green cab. Its weekday peak comes in the late afternoon, not the morning, and pickups fall sharply in summer.
Counts are from TLC's trip records for three sectors (yellow, green, Uber/Lyft) as aggregated by TLC Help. Taxi tip rates use card trips only, because cash tips are not recorded.
Morningside Heights at a glance
The zone borders Bloomingdale (24) to the south, Manhattanville (152) to the north, and Central Harlem (41) and Central Harlem North (42) to the east. TLC's lookup table calls it a "Boro Zone". That label only sorts zones in TLC's data; it is not a legal line.
The legal line that matters here is West 110th Street. By our check of TLC's zone shape against the city's street centerline file, the zone starts at about West 110th Street and lies north of it. So it is in the Hail Zone, and green cabs may pick up street hails here.
When rides start and end
Unlike its Harlem neighbors, Morningside Heights is busier on weekdays (about 3,730 pickups) than on Saturdays (3,659) or Sundays (3,098). Weekday pickups rise through the afternoon to 5 p.m. (about 261) and 6 p.m. (about 249). Late nights are quiet: only 6.2% of weekday pickups start between midnight and 5 a.m.
Drop-offs run the other way. About 328 trips end here in the weekday 8 a.m. hour and 302 at 9 a.m. Over the year there were 1,465,920 drop-offs, about 11% more than pickups.
A big summer dip
Pickups were highest in May 2026 (134,595) and then fell to 93,279 in June. They stayed low in July and August (92,408). January 2026 was also low (97,042). The rest of the year sat between about 105,000 and 127,000. The data shows this pattern but not the cause.
Where trips go
Trips spread over many nearby zones. The top destination is the zone itself (6.9%), then Central Harlem (5.4%), Upper West Side North (4.8%) and Central Harlem North (4.3%). All ten top destinations are in Manhattan. 6.1% of app pickups went to an airport, about twice the median for Manhattan's Boro Zone zones. 18.8% of app pickups were charged the Congestion Relief Zone fee.
Fares, tips and pay
| From zone 166 | Yellow taxi | Green cab | App |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median fare (before tips, tolls, fees) | $17.23 | $13.50 | $18.65 |
| Median miles | 2.63 | 1.89 | 2.99 |
| Tip rate | 20.3% (card trips) | 23.5% (card trips) | 5.3% |
Yellow taxi trips here are short (2.63 miles) with a card tip rate above 20%, closer to the Upper West Side than to Harlem. In Central Harlem North, for example, the median yellow trip is 4.36 miles and the card tip rate is 2.9%. App drivers earn a median of $15.59 per trip (tips and tolls excluded) and an average tip of $1.37.
Rules and curb notes
- Green cabs may take hails here and may use taxi stands in the Hail Zone (Chapter 80, §80-19(b)(2) and (d)(1)). Just south, in Bloomingdale, they may not: that zone is south of West 110th Street (80-19(b)(1)).
- For-hire drivers need a pre-arranged trip for every pickup (80-19(c)(1)).
- Congestion charges: the zone is north of 96th Street and 60th Street, so trips that stay uptown pay neither the NYS surcharge nor the MTA charge.
- Stands: there is no relief stand or taxi-stand sign here in DOT's data. The nearest relief stands in its data are on West 127th Street in Manhattanville.
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.
- Morningside Heights: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 166 (Morningside Heights, 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.
- Morningside Heights: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 166, 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.
- Morningside Heights: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 166 (Morningside Heights, Manhattan) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Morningside Heights: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 166, 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 1,324,809 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Morningside Heights: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 166, 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 1,465,920 drop-offs.
- Morningside Heights: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 166, 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).
- Morningside Heights: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 166 (Morningside Heights, 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 rides start in Morningside Heights?
1,324,809 from September 2025 to August 2026, about 3,630 a day. App trips were 1,021,922, yellow taxis 281,807 and green cabs 21,080. Drop-offs were higher, at 1,465,920.
Why is the summer so quiet here?
The trip records show the drop but not its cause. Pickups fell from 134,595 in May 2026 to 93,279 in June and stayed low through August (92,408), about 31% below May. January was also low.
Can green cabs pick up street hails in Morningside Heights?
Yes. The Hail Exclusionary Zone covers Manhattan south of West 110th Street on the west side. By our check of TLC's zone map, Morningside Heights starts at about West 110th Street and lies north of it. Green cabs had 21,080 pickups here, the 5th most of any NYC zone.
Do many trips from here go to the airport?
More than in most of upper Manhattan. 6.1% of app pickups went to an airport, against a median of about 3% for Manhattan's 'Boro Zone' zones. For yellow taxis it was 1.4%.
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 51: Definitions (PDF) nyc.gov
- TLC Rules Chapter 80: Rules Applicable to All Drivers (PDF) nyc.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.