Murray Hill Taxi Zone (170): Trips, Hours & Fares

Murray Hill (TLC zone 170) is a large, balanced East Side zone: almost exactly as many trips end here as start here. Over the year to August 2026, 3,282,481 trips began here (about 8,993 a day) and 3,275,971 ended here. Yellow taxis had 36.3% of pickups, which ranks the zone 9th of 263 for yellow pickups. Most of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel's Manhattan ramps are in this zone. DOT lists two taxi-only relief stands here.

Murray Hill at a glance

On TLC's map, zone 170 runs from about 28th Street up to 42nd Street on the East Side. It touches seven zones: Midtown Center (161), Midtown East (162), Midtown South (164), UN/Turtle Bay South (233), Kips Bay (137), Gramercy (107) and Union Sq (234). TLC's lookup tags Murray Hill "Yellow Zone", the same data group as the Midtown zones around it.

When rides start and end

Weekdays and Saturdays are about equally busy here: about 9,265 pickups on an average weekday and 9,338 on a Saturday. Sundays are lower (about 7,283).

• Weekday pickups peak at 6 p.m. (about 670) and 7 p.m. The 4–6 p.m. hours average about 1,817 pickups, against about 1,272 in the 7–9 a.m. hours.
• Weekday drop-offs have two peaks: 8 a.m. (about 599) and 9 p.m. (about 579).
• Saturday pickups peak at 7 p.m. (about 677). Saturday drop-offs peak at 9–11 p.m.
• Sunday pickups peak at noon, with a second high point at midnight. Sunday drop-offs peak at midnight and 1 a.m., the tail of Saturday night.

Month by month

October 2025 was the busiest month (297,550 pickups). February 2026 (249,624) and August 2026 (252,773) were the quietest.

Where trips go

Destinations are widely spread. The top ten take only 31.2% of pickups. The largest are outside New York City (TLC zone 265, 4.1%), Union Square (3.7%), LaGuardia (3.6%), Midtown Center (3.4%) and the East Village (2.9%). Airports take 9.5% of app pickups and 2.1% of yellow pickups. Trips into the zone come most often from Union Square (4.3% of drop-offs), Midtown Center (3.8%) and the East Village (3.7%).

Fares and pay

Yellow trips: a median 1.6 miles, 13.4 minutes and $14.20 on the meter, with a 23.4% card tip rate. App trips: a median 2.56 miles, 18.3 minutes and a $24.48 fare. The median app driver pay is $18.05 (before tips and tolls), with a $2.00 average tip.

Green cabs recorded 306 pickups here in a year. That is more than in most Midtown zones, but still less than one a day. Their figures (a $3 median fare for a median 9.23-mile trip) are unusual, and there are too few records to read a pattern from.

Tunnel, congestion fee and hail lines

• Queens-Midtown Tunnel: city street-centerline data puts most of the tunnel's Manhattan entrance, exit and approach roads in zone 170. The MTA FAQ says vehicles traveling between the FDR Drive and the tunnel are charged the congestion toll, because the connection uses Manhattan streets, and get a crossing credit. See the tunnel toll page.
• MTA Congestion Relief Zone: Murray Hill, roughly 28th to 42nd Street, is fully inside the zone; 99.5% of app and 98.3% of yellow pickups were charged. As of 2026-10-12: $1.50 per app trip, $0.75 per taxi trip.
• NYS congestion surcharge: a trip from Murray Hill through the tunnel to Queens stays in the state and pays the surcharge: $2.50 in a medallion taxi, $2.75 in an FHV (as of 2026-10-12).
• Hail Exclusionary Zone: green cabs may not accept hails or start pre-arranged trips here (Chapter 51), even though the data shows 306 green pickups. FHV street pickups: 80-19(c)(2).

Relief stands, taxi stands and an FHV-only curb

DOT's relief-stand dataset (updated October 1, 2026) lists two taxi-only relief stands with 14 spaces, both near 28th Street and Lexington Avenue. Current DOT sign records (October 11, 2026) show taxi-stand signs on two segments on the east side of Park Avenue (32nd–33rd and 36th–37th Streets). A third stand sign, on Park Avenue South between 27th and 28th Streets, is just outside the zone in Gramercy. They also show one segment of East 41st Street signed "For-hire vehicles only" on weekday evenings.

Both relief stands here are taxi-only. Kips Bay, next door, has a relief stand on East 28th Street that is open to FHVs. The limit at any relief stand is one hour, within the posted hours and vehicle types (DOT; 80-19(d)(7)). FHV drivers may not load at the Park Avenue taxi stands (80-19(d)(2)). The East 41st Street FHV-only block is signed for weekday evenings. Other options: relief stand finder.