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Sunnyside (TLC zone 226) has more relief-stand space than any other taxi zone in New York City: 8 stands with 54 spaces. It is also a busy pickup zone, with about 4,642 trips a day (1,694,315 in the 12 months to August 2026), 7th of 67 Queens zones outside the airports. TLC's Long Island City licensing office sits inside its boundary.
Trip numbers come from TLC records for yellow taxis, green cabs and app trips (Uber, Lyft). Relief stands come from NYC DOT's open data, matched to TLC's zone map by TLC Help.
Sunnyside at a glance
Zone 226 has five neighbors on TLC's map: Astoria (7), Long Island City/Hunters Point (145), Long Island City/Queens Plaza (146), Maspeth (157) and Woodside (260). Its "Boro Zone" label is a data category from TLC's lookup table, not a rule.
The TLC office is here. TLC's licensing facility at 31-00 47th Avenue (open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., per TLC's locations page) falls inside the zone 226 boundary, near its western edge. See the LIC office guide before you go.
Relief stands in Sunnyside
DOT's data (updated October 1, 2026) lists these stands in the zone. Most sit around 36th Street, 43rd Avenue and Skillman Avenue:
At a relief stand you may take any open spot, but you must follow the posted vehicle type and time limit (80-19(d)(7)). The Queens Boulevard stand is taxi-only, so an FHV may not use it. Find others with the relief stand finder.
When rides start and end
Sunnyside works like a commuter neighborhood on weekdays. Drop-offs peak at 8 a.m. (about 325), and pickups peak at 8 a.m. too (about 289), with a second rise at 5 and 6 p.m. Saturday pickups peak at 6 p.m. (about 311). On Sundays the busiest pickup hours are around noon, and nearly a quarter of Sunday drop-offs (23.3%) happen between midnight and 5 a.m.
Pickups were lowest in September 2025 (123,334) and highest in December 2025 (155,819).
Where trips go, and what they pay
11.1% of trips stay in Sunnyside. The rest go mostly to nearby Queens: Astoria (7.7%), Long Island City/Hunters Point (6.7%), Woodside (6.1%), Jackson Heights (3.5%) and Elmhurst (3.3%). Trips arriving here come from the same places in almost the same order, so much of the traffic here moves back and forth between these few zones. LaGuardia takes 2.2% of pickups; JFK is not in the top ten.
The median app trip is 2.88 miles in 15.2 minutes, paying the driver $14.50 before tips. Per engaged hour that is $58.87, near the bottom of Queens (64th of 67). Engaged hours leave out driving to pickups and waiting, so they are not real hourly earnings. 14.0% of app trips and 28.7% of yellow trips paid the Manhattan congestion fee.
Yellow taxis are a bigger part of Sunnyside than of most of Queens (4.7% of pickups, 8th). They also run longer: a median of 4.5 miles, and 12.7% go to an airport.
Pickup rules
Sunnyside is in TLC's Hail Zone (Chapter 51): yellow and green cabs may take street hails. App and other FHV drivers may only take trips sent by their base (80-19(c)(1)).
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.
- Sunnyside: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 226 (Sunnyside, 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.
- Sunnyside: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 226, 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.
- Sunnyside: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 226 (Sunnyside, Queens) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Sunnyside: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 226, 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 1,694,315 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Sunnyside: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 226, 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 1,702,990 drop-offs.
- Sunnyside: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 226, 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).
- Sunnyside: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 226 (Sunnyside, 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 many relief stands are in Sunnyside?
Eight, with 54 spaces in total, according to NYC DOT's relief-stand data (updated October 1, 2026). That is more relief-stand spaces than any other TLC taxi zone in the city. Seven are open to taxis and FHVs; one 13-space stand on Queens Boulevard is for taxis only.
Is the TLC Long Island City office in this zone?
Yes. TLC's licensing facility at 31-00 47th Avenue, Long Island City, falls inside the TLC boundary of zone 226 (Sunnyside), even though its mailing address says Long Island City.
How busy is Sunnyside?
TLC trip records show 1,694,315 pickups from September 2025 to August 2026, about 4,642 a day. That is 7th of the 67 Queens zones outside the airports.
Do app trips from Sunnyside pay well per hour?
Not compared with the rest of Queens. Median driver pay per trip was $14.50, but pay per engaged hour was $58.87, 64th of 67 non-airport Queens zones, because trips are short and slow.
Sources
Last reviewed against the official sources on .
- NYC TLC Trip Record Data nyc.gov
- TLC Taxi Zone Lookup Table d37ci6vzurychx.cloudfront.net
- NYC Open Data: Taxi and FHV Relief Stands (DOT, vqu8-xef9) data.cityofnewyork.us
- NYC TLC: Locations nyc.gov
- TLC Rules Chapter 80: Rules Applicable to All Drivers (PDF) nyc.gov
- TLC Rules Chapter 51: Definitions (PDF) nyc.gov
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.