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Upper West Side North (TLC zone 238) is where the 96th Street surcharge line cuts through a busy yellow-cab neighborhood. The zone had 2,051,907 pickups in the 12 months to August 2026 (about 5,622 a day), and yellow taxis carried 41.8% of them. Weekday mornings are the peak. By our check, about 86% of the zone lies south of 96th Street, inside the NYS congestion surcharge area, and the rest lies north of it.
From TLC's trip records (yellow taxis, green cabs, Uber and Lyft), aggregated by TLC Help. A trip counts for this zone whichever side of 96th Street it started on.
Upper West Side North at a glance
The zone borders Upper West Side South (239), Manhattan Valley (151) and Central Park (43). TLC labels it "Yellow Zone", a category in its data and not a legal line. The city's street centerline file lists Henry Hudson Parkway ramps in this zone, including an entrance at West 96th Street.
The 96th Street line
The NYS congestion surcharge applies to trips that begin in, end in or pass through Manhattan "south of and excluding 96th Street". We compared TLC's zone shape with the city's 96th Street centerline: about 86% of the zone is south of it and about 14% is north. A pickup in the northern strip that goes uptown pays no surcharge; the same pickup a few blocks south does. As of October 12, 2026 the surcharge is $2.50 per yellow taxi trip and $2.75 per app or other FHV trip. Trip records tag the zone, not the street, so this data can't split the zone's trips by side of 96th.
The other lines are simpler. The whole zone is south of West 110th Street, so it is in the Hail Exclusionary Zone: green cabs may not pick up here, and for-hire pickups without a pre-arranged trip carry the higher 80-19(c)(2) penalties. And the zone is well north of the MTA's 60th Street line; 28.7% of app pickups were charged the MTA fee because they went south into that zone.
When rides start and end
Weekday pickups peak at 8 a.m. (about 404), with 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. close behind. Weekdays (about 5,744 pickups) are slightly busier than Saturdays (5,655), and Sundays peak at 10 a.m. Late nights are very quiet: only 3.6% of weekday pickups start between midnight and 5 a.m.
Through the year
December 2025 was the busiest month (190,366 pickups). July (152,910) and August 2026 (146,517) were the quietest, and August was about 10% below September 2025.
Where trips go
Upper West Side South (7.8%) is the top destination, then Upper East Side North (5.5%) across the park and Lincoln Square East (5.4%). Morningside Heights (4.3%) is the main trip north. LaGuardia Airport takes 2.6%, and 8.4% of app pickups went to an airport.
Fares, tips and pay
Yellow taxi trips are short: a median of 1.73 miles, 11.1 minutes and $12.80, with a 23.6% card tip rate. App trips are longer (2.95 miles, $21.14 fare), and median app driver pay is $16.71 (tips and tolls excluded), below the $18.14 median for Manhattan's "Yellow Zone" zones.
DOT's relief-stand and parking-sign data list no relief stand or taxi-stand sign in this zone. See relief stands for the nearest ones.
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.
- Upper West Side North: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 238 (Upper West Side North, 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.
- Upper West Side North: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 238, 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.
- Upper West Side North: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 238 (Upper West Side North, Manhattan) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Upper West Side North: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 238, 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 2,051,907 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Upper West Side North: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 238, 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 2,051,501 drop-offs.
- Upper West Side North: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 238, 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).
- Upper West Side North: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 238 (Upper West Side North, 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
Is the Upper West Side North zone inside the congestion surcharge area?
Mostly. The NYS congestion surcharge covers Manhattan south of and excluding 96th Street. By our check of TLC's zone map against the 96th Street centerline, about 86% of zone 238 is south of 96th Street and about 14% is north of it. So a trip's charge depends on which side of 96th it starts, ends or passes through.
How many rides start on the Upper West Side North?
2,051,907 from September 2025 to August 2026, about 5,622 a day. Yellow taxis had 857,631 of them (41.8%), apps 1,193,814 and green cabs 462. Drop-offs were almost exactly equal: 2,051,501.
Do riders tip well here?
For app trips, yes by Manhattan standards: tips came to 6.7% of the fare, the 5th-highest app tip rate of any Manhattan zone, about $1.99 a trip. Yellow card trips tipped 23.6%.
Can green cabs pick up here?
No. The whole zone is south of West 110th Street, inside the Hail Exclusionary Zone. Green cabs may drop off here (19,977 did) but had only 462 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 (PDF) nyc.gov
- TLC Rules Chapter 80: Rules Applicable to All Drivers (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 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.