On this page (10)
Penn Station/Madison Sq West (TLC zone 186) is the zone where yellow cabs and apps are almost tied. TLC trip records count 2,867,814 pickups here (about 7,857 a day) from September 2025 to August 2026. Yellow taxis made 1,417,808 of them (49.4%), ranking the zone 5th of 263 for yellow pickups. The flow is lopsided: more trips arrive by app, and more leave by yellow cab. Weekends are busier than weekdays, and Sunday pickups peak in the evening.
Penn Station/Madison Sq West at a glance
Zone 186 is a small zone on TLC's map, roughly 26th to 34th Streets on the West Side. It touches five zones: Garment District (100), Midtown South (164), Flatiron (90), Union Sq (234) and East Chelsea (68). Here TLC's "Yellow Zone" data label happens to fit: yellow cabs make about half the pickups.
Arrive by app, leave by taxi
| Zone 186, 12 months | Pickups | Drop-offs |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow taxi | 1,417,808 | 942,223 |
| App (Uber/Lyft) | 1,449,894 | 1,666,432 |
Yellow cabs make about 1.5 pickups here for every drop-off. App trips run the other way, with about 216,500 more drop-offs than pickups. The trip records do not say why.
When rides start: weekends and Sunday evenings
Weekends are busier than weekdays: about 8,440 pickups on an average Saturday, 8,282 on a Sunday and 7,657 on a weekday. Sunday runs late. Sunday pickups peak at 7 p.m. (about 510) and 9 p.m. (about 503), later than in Midtown Center or Times Square (5 p.m.) and Upper East Side South (2 p.m.). On weekdays the top hours are 10 p.m. (about 472), 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. On Saturdays they are 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Month by month
October 2025 was the busiest month (262,854 pickups) and February 2026 the quietest (201,901). July and August 2026 (242,241 and 236,754) were busier than April, May or June.
Where trips go
The top destination is outside New York City (TLC zone 265, 5.4% of pickups). Then come Times Square/Theatre District (4.5%), Midtown Center (3.9%), Murray Hill (3.8%) and Union Square (3.7%). No airport is in the top 10. Only 1.0% of yellow pickups go to an airport. For apps the share is 9.1%.
Fares and pay
Yellow trips are short but slow: a median 1.57 miles in 15.3 minutes, with a $14.90 meter fare and a 23.3% card tip rate. App trips: a median 2.81 miles, 20.9 minutes and a $28.03 fare. The median app driver pay is $20.50 per trip (before tips and tolls), with a $2.31 average tip.
Congestion fee and hail lines
- MTA Congestion Relief Zone: zone 186 (about 26th–34th Streets) is fully inside the Congestion Relief Zone. 99.6% of app pickups and 99.3% of yellow pickups were charged: $1.50 or $0.75 per trip as of 2026-10-12, paid by the rider. See the rate card.
- NYS congestion surcharge: a yellow cab from zone 186 to anywhere in New York State adds $2.50 to the fare, and an app ride $2.75 (as of 2026-10-12, tax department).
- Hail Exclusionary Zone: yellow cabs may take street hails here, but green cabs may not (Chapter 51); the data shows 112 green pickups in a year. App drivers take dispatched trips only (80-19(c)(2)).
Stands listed in the zone
Current DOT sign records (nfid-uabd, updated October 11, 2026) show taxi-stand signs on two segments: Seventh Avenue between 31st and 32nd Streets and Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets, both on the east side. DOT's relief-stand dataset lists one taxi-only relief stand on West 26th Street (3 spaces, weekdays 9 a.m.–5 p.m.). We did not find a current official source for any station-run taxi line, so this page does not describe one.
The West 26th Street relief stand is taxi-only and posted for weekday business hours. At the Seventh and Eighth Avenue stand blocks, only taxis may load (80-19(d)(2)), cabs join at the back (80-19(d)(4)) and the first two keep a driver in the seat (80-19(d)(6)). TLC's stand rules also cover special stands and feed lines at rail terminals (80-19(e)(1)). More: taxi stand rules.
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.
- Penn Station/Madison Sq West: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 186 (Penn Station/Madison Sq West, 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.
- Penn Station/Madison Sq West: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 186, 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.
- Penn Station/Madison Sq West: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 186 (Penn Station/Madison Sq West, Manhattan) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Penn Station/Madison Sq West: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 186, 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 2,867,814 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Penn Station/Madison Sq West: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 186, 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 2,610,049 drop-offs.
- Penn Station/Madison Sq West: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 186, 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).
- Penn Station/Madison Sq West: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 186 (Penn Station/Madison Sq West, 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
Do more people take yellow cabs or Uber from the Penn Station zone?
Almost the same. In the 12 months to August 2026, zone 186 had 1,417,808 yellow taxi pickups and 1,449,894 app pickups, so yellow cabs had 49.4%. That ranks the zone 5th of 263 for yellow pickups.
Why do yellow cabs leave the zone fuller than they arrive?
The data shows the pattern but not the reason. Yellow cabs made 1,417,808 pickups here but only 942,223 drop-offs. Apps were the other way round: 1,449,894 pickups and 1,666,432 drop-offs. The records count trips, not people, so they cannot show whether the same riders arrive one way and leave the other.
Where is the taxi stand near Penn Station?
This page lists only what DOT's current sign records show inside zone 186: taxi-stand signs on Seventh Avenue between 31st and 32nd Streets and on Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets (east side). We have not verified any station-run stand or pickup area. Follow the posted signs.
When is the zone busiest?
Weekends. An average Saturday has about 8,440 pickups and a Sunday about 8,282, against about 7,657 on a weekday. Sunday pickups peak in the evening, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
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 DOT: Taxi and FHV Relief Stands nyc.gov
- 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
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.