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Roosevelt Island (TLC zone 202) is a small, app-only zone that looks more like Queens than Manhattan in the trip data. In TLC trip records for September 2025 to August 2026, 164,611 trips started here (about 451 a day) and 198,146 ended here. Uber and Lyft did 96% of pickups. Yellow taxis had just 4.3%, about 19 a day. The most common destinations are Long Island City, LaGuardia and Astoria, not Midtown.
Roosevelt Island at a glance
TLC lists zone 202 in Manhattan, but its service_zone label is "Boro Zone", not the "Yellow Zone" used for most of Manhattan below 96th Street. That label is only for data. TLC's zone file shows no land neighbours, because the island is surrounded by the East River. It is one of the quietest zones in Manhattan, 62nd of 69 by pickups.
More trips arrive than leave
About 543 trips a day end on the island, against 451 that start there. The gap is clearest for yellow cabs: 24,193 yellow drop-offs against 7,067 yellow pickups. Green cabs show the same pattern on a tiny scale (373 drop-offs, 45 pickups). The data does not explain the gap.
When rides start
Saturday is the busiest day, with about 584 pickups, against about 416 on an average weekday and 495 on a Sunday. On weekdays the top hours are 7 a.m. (about 25 pickups), 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. On Saturdays pickups stay level from late afternoon to 10 p.m.
Month by month
Volume was steady. October 2025 was the busiest month (15,506 pickups) and February 2026 the quietest (12,078). Summer 2026 months were near the yearly middle.
Where trips go: Queens first
All six top destinations are in Queens or at a Queens airport:
- Long Island City/Hunters Point: 10.2% of pickups
- LaGuardia Airport: 6.4%
- Astoria: 5.7%
- JFK Airport: 4.7%
- Queensbridge/Ravenswood: 4.3%
- Old Astoria: 3.2%
The first Manhattan zone on the list is Lenox Hill East, 8th with 2.8%. Arrivals mirror this: Long Island City/Hunters Point is also the top origin (10.5% of drop-offs).
12.2% of app pickups go to an airport. Among the Manhattan zones TLC labels "Yellow Zone", only Times Square/Theatre District has a higher share. For airport rules, see LaGuardia and JFK.
Fares and pay
Trips from the island are long by Manhattan standards. The median app trip is 4.83 miles, 22.9 minutes and a $27.06 fare, and the median app driver pay is $22.96 (tips and tolls not included). Yellow trips are even longer: median 5.38 miles and $30.30 on the meter. The yellow card tip rate here is only 4.6% of the fare, against 21–25% in most Midtown and Upper East Side zones.
Which legal lines apply? Not always clear
Roosevelt Island is part of Manhattan, but it is off the street grid. The rule texts do not name it.
- Hail Exclusionary Zone: TLC's Chapter 51 defines it as "Manhattan south of East 96th St. and West 110th St." It does not say how this applies to the island, which lies south of the line of East 96th Street. A green cab driver who wants to take hails here should ask TLC first. The same words set the area for the higher FHV street-hail penalties in 80-19(c)(2). In practice, only 45 green pickups were recorded in a year.
- MTA Congestion Relief Zone: the MTA describes it as Manhattan south of and including 60th Street. We compared TLC's zone shape with the line of 60th Street: about 74% of the island's area is north of that line and 26% south of it. The MTA pages we read do not say whether the island is in the zone. In the data, 20.7% of app pickups and 24.9% of yellow pickups were charged. Where a trip is charged, the per-trip amount as of 2026-10-12 is $1.50 (app) or $0.75 (taxi). More: congestion zone boundaries.
- NYS congestion surcharge: it covers trips that begin, end or pass through Manhattan south of 96th Street. As of 2026-10-12 it is $2.50 per medallion taxi trip and $2.75 per FHV trip. The tax department's page does not mention Roosevelt Island either.
When a rule matters for a ticket, do not rely on this page. Read the rule and ask TLC, or a lawyer if you have a summons. See also who can pick up where.
Stands
DOT's relief-stand dataset and current taxi-stand sign records list no relief stand or taxi stand on Roosevelt Island (checked October 12, 2026).
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.
- Roosevelt Island: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 202 (Roosevelt Island, 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.
- Roosevelt Island: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 202, 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.
- Roosevelt Island: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 202 (Roosevelt Island, Manhattan) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Roosevelt Island: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 202, 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 164,611 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Roosevelt Island: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 202, 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 198,146 drop-offs.
- Roosevelt Island: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 202, 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).
- Roosevelt Island: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 202 (Roosevelt Island, 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 yellow taxis pick up on Roosevelt Island?
Rarely. In the 12 months to August 2026 there were 7,067 yellow taxi pickups in zone 202, about 19 a day. That is only 4.3% of pickups; Uber and Lyft had almost all the rest (157,499 trips).
Where do trips from Roosevelt Island go?
Mostly to Queens and the airports. The top destinations are Long Island City/Hunters Point (10.2% of pickups), LaGuardia Airport (6.4%), Astoria (5.7%) and JFK Airport (4.7%). The first Manhattan zone on the list, Lenox Hill East, is 8th with 2.8%.
Is Roosevelt Island in the congestion pricing zone?
The MTA describes the zone as Manhattan south of and including 60th Street. The MTA pages we checked do not mention Roosevelt Island. In the trip data, 20.7% of app pickups here were charged the per-trip fee, mostly trips heading into Midtown. Check with the MTA if you need a firm answer for a specific trip.
Why does TLC call Roosevelt Island a 'Boro Zone'?
It is a label in TLC's zone lookup table, used for data. Most Manhattan zones south of 96th Street are labelled 'Yellow Zone', but Roosevelt Island is labelled 'Boro Zone'. The label is not a legal boundary and does not decide who may pick up.
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
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.