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South Williamsburg, TLC taxi zone 217, is a zone of very short local trips. Trip records show 441,378 pickups from September 2025 to August 2026 (about 1,209 a day, 49th of 61 in Brooklyn). The median app trip from here was just 1.16 miles, the shortest in Brooklyn. Nearly half of all trips (45%) ended inside the zone or in Bedford next door.
Its week also runs differently from the zones around it. Saturday is the quietest day, and the busiest weekday hour is 10 a.m., not the evening.
Don't confuse this zone with Williamsburg (South Side), zone 256. That is a separate zone with a very different, nightlife-heavy pattern.
South Williamsburg at a glance (zone 217)
TLC's lookup table gives zone 217 the service-zone label "Boro Zone" in Brooklyn. It is a label in the data, with no legal meaning. Its neighbours on the TLC map are Bedford, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Clinton Hill, East Williamsburg and Williamsburg (South Side).
When rides start here
An average weekday has about 1,298 pickups, with the top hour at 10 a.m. (about 94). After that, pickups hold at about 75–86 an hour until 6 p.m. Sunday is almost as busy as a weekday (about 1,245), peaking at 11 p.m. Saturday has only about 730 pickups, 56% of a weekday. Among Brooklyn's 61 zones, only Borough Park and Ocean Parkway South have a lower Saturday-to-weekday ratio. When Saturday trips do come, they come late: the Saturday peak is 10 p.m.
A strong seasonal swing
This zone changes more across the year than most. Pickups peaked in December 2025 (47,799) and January 2026 (45,949). They were lowest in July 2026 (25,361), about half the December level, and August was almost as low (26,863). The data shows the swing but not its cause, so plan with the pattern, not a story about it.
Some green-cab months show a blank cell. That means 1–9 trips that month: TLC Help hides counts that small.
Where trips go
Two places take nearly half of all rides: Bedford (23.2% of pickups) and trips that stay inside South Williamsburg (22.0%). Williamsburg (South Side) takes 9.4%. Borough Park, further south in Brooklyn, also makes the top ten at 2.2%. Arrivals mirror this: Bedford sends 25.3% of all drop-offs.
Who serves the zone, and what it pays
Of the pickups, 433,235 (98.2%) were app trips, 8,006 yellow and 137 green. Yellow taxis drop off more than twice as many riders here (18,405) as they pick up.
Short trips mean small fares. The median app fare was $12.25 and median driver pay $9.51, both the lowest in Brooklyn. App riders tipped an average of $0.31. Yellow trips from here are a different kind of ride: a median of 4.23 miles and a $26.50 fare, with 20.4% paying the Congestion Relief Zone charge. Pay per engaged hour ($56.42) counts only time with a rider; it is not hourly earnings.
Pickup rules and practical notes
All of zone 217 is in TLC's Hail Zone (Chapter 51), so taxis and green cabs can take hails. App and other for-hire drivers must get every pickup through a licensed base (80-19(c)(1)). That applies even to a short neighbourhood hop.
DOT data checked on 2026-10-12 shows no relief stand or taxi-stand sign in this zone. One current sign record does fall inside it: a "FOR-HIRE VEHICLES ONLY" sign on Harrison Avenue between Hooper Street and Division Avenue (nfid-uabd, order S-01326509). Read the posted sign for its hours and limits before you stop there. To see how this short-trip pattern compares, use the Brooklyn zone rankings.
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.
- South Williamsburg: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 217 (South Williamsburg, Brooklyn) 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.
- South Williamsburg: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 217, 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.
- South Williamsburg: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 217 (South Williamsburg, Brooklyn) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- South Williamsburg: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 217, 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 441,378 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- South Williamsburg: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 217, 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 470,116 drop-offs.
- South Williamsburg: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 217, 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).
- South Williamsburg: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 217 (South Williamsburg, Brooklyn) 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 South Williamsburg?
TLC trip records show 441,378 pickups in zone 217 from September 2025 to August 2026, about 1,209 a day. That was 49th of Brooklyn's 61 taxi zones. Uber and Lyft trips were 98.2% of them.
Why are app trips from South Williamsburg so cheap?
Because they are very short. The median app trip from here was 1.16 miles (the shortest of any Brooklyn zone) and 11.1 minutes, and 45% of all trips ended either inside the zone or in Bedford next door. Median driver pay was $9.51 per trip, the lowest in Brooklyn.
What day is busiest in South Williamsburg?
Weekdays. An average weekday has about 1,298 pickups and an average Sunday about 1,245, but an average Saturday has only about 730. Only Borough Park and Ocean Parkway South have a bigger Saturday drop among Brooklyn zones.
Does South Williamsburg get busier at some times of year?
Yes. Pickups were highest in December 2025 (47,799) and January 2026 (45,949) and lowest in July 2026 (25,361), about half the December level. The trip data shows the swing but not the reason.
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 80 (Drivers) nyc.gov
- TLC Rules, Chapter 51 (Definitions) 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.