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Ridgewood, TLC taxi zone 198, is a weekend-night zone that works like part of north Brooklyn. In the 12 months to August 2026, TLC records show 1,677,281 pickups here (about 4,595 a day), which ranks it 11th of Queens' 69 zones. The busiest hour of the whole week is midnight going into Sunday, and about a quarter of all trips end in Bushwick, East Williamsburg, Stuyvesant Heights or Greenpoint.
Ridgewood at a glance (zone 198)
TLC's lookup table lists zone 198 in Queens with the label "Boro Zone". That label only sorts trip data; it is not a legal border. On the TLC zone map Ridgewood touches two Brooklyn zones, Bushwick North and East Williamsburg, and four in Queens: Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village and Forest Park/Highland Park. Slightly more trips end here (1,750,348) than start here.
A late-night, weekend zone
Most Queens zones peak at 8 a.m. on weekdays. Ridgewood does not. On weekdays the busiest hour is 6 p.m. (about 238 pickups), and pickups stay above 210 an hour from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. On weekends demand runs through the night: Saturday peaks at 11 p.m. (about 399) and Sunday at midnight (about 399). On an average Sunday, 27.5% of pickups start between midnight and 5 a.m. The quietest hour is around 3 a.m. on weekdays and 6–8 a.m. on weekends.
Pickups were steady through the year: between 122,996 (September 2025) and 149,793 (December 2025) a month.
Where trips go: across the Brooklyn line
Only 11.6% of trips stay inside Ridgewood. Bushwick North (10%) and Bushwick South (8.1%) come next, ahead of Queens neighbours Glendale (6.2%), Maspeth (2.6%) and Middle Village (2.4%). Trips that end in Ridgewood come from the same places in almost the same order. JFK takes 2% of pickups; LaGuardia is not in the top ten.
Who serves Ridgewood, and what trips pay
Nearly every pickup here is an app trip: 1,656,588 of them (98.8%), against 20,368 for yellow taxis and 325 for green cabs. A typical app ride covers 2.78 miles in 16 minutes, so it is slow for its length; the median rider pays $17.72 and the driver gets $14.78 before tips. That pay per trip is 22nd of 69 Queens zones. But pay per engaged hour, $58.12, is the lowest in Queens, because trips here move slowly. Riders tip better than in most of Queens: 4.5% of the fare, $1.01 on average.
More Ridgewood trips touch Manhattan's core than in most of Queens: 7% of app pickups and 13.8% of yellow pickups paid the Congestion Relief Zone charge.
Pickup rules in Ridgewood
All of Ridgewood is in TLC's Hail Zone, which is every part of the city except Manhattan below East 96th and West 110th Streets and the airports (Chapter 51). Yellow and green cabs may take hails here. Uber, Lyft and other FHV drivers may only take trips booked through their base, even at 1 a.m. outside a bar (80-19(c)(1)). When we checked DOT data on 2026-10-12, there was no relief stand and no taxi-stand sign in zone 198; the nearest options are listed in the relief stand finder. More: who can pick up where and how taxi zones work.
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.
- Ridgewood: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 198 (Ridgewood, 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.
- Ridgewood: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 198, 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.
- Ridgewood: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 198 (Ridgewood, Queens) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Ridgewood: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 198, 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 1,677,281 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Ridgewood: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 198, 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 1,750,348 drop-offs.
- Ridgewood: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 198, 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).
- Ridgewood: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 198 (Ridgewood, 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
How busy is Ridgewood for taxi and app pickups?
TLC trip records show 1,677,281 pickups in zone 198 from September 2025 to August 2026, about 4,595 a day. That puts it 11th of Queens' 69 taxi zones.
When is Ridgewood busiest?
Weekend nights. The busiest hour of the week is midnight going into Sunday, with about 399 pickups. On an average Saturday there are about 6,431 pickups, compared with about 3,977 on a weekday.
Where do riders from Ridgewood go?
Mostly to nearby Brooklyn and Queens. 11.6% stay in Ridgewood, 10% go to Bushwick North and 8.1% to Bushwick South. Only 2% go to JFK.
Why is app pay per hour low in Ridgewood?
Trips here are slow for their length: the median app trip is 2.78 miles but takes 16 minutes. Pay per engaged hour was $58.12, the lowest of any Queens zone, even though pay per trip ($14.78) is above the Queens middle. Engaged-hour pay leaves out waiting and driving to pickups.
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) nyc.gov
- TLC Rules, Chapter 80 (Drivers) 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
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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.