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Washington Heights South (TLC zone 244) is the busiest taxi zone in Washington Heights and Inwood. It had 2,023,434 pickups in the 12 months to August 2026 (about 5,544 a day) and slightly more drop-offs. Weekday mornings are the peak in both directions, and 6.1% of trips end outside New York City, the highest share of any Manhattan zone north of 59th Street.
Data: TLC trip records for yellow taxis, green cabs and Uber/Lyft trips, aggregated by TLC Help. Black car and livery trips that are not app-dispatched are not included.
Washington Heights South at a glance
The zone borders Washington Heights North (243), Hamilton Heights (116) and Highbridge Park (120). In the city's street centerline file, the George Washington Bridge entrances and part of the bridge itself fall in this zone. As of October 12, 2026 the Port Authority charges a car $16.79 peak or $14.79 off-peak with E-ZPass, $19.55 Mid-Tier and $23.30 by mail, and only in the direction entering New York. Rules for TLC trips are on the GWB page. TLC's lookup labels the zone "Boro Zone", a data category only.
When rides start and end
On weekdays the 8 a.m. hour is busiest for pickups (about 363), followed by 5 p.m. (about 318) and 7 p.m. (about 313). Drop-offs peak at 8 a.m. too, and harder: about 453 trips end here in that hour. Saturdays (about 5,872 pickups) are a bit busier than weekdays (5,568), and Sundays are the quietest (5,096), with the peak at midnight.
Steady through the year
The busiest month was December 2025 (183,067 pickups) and the quietest February 2026 (154,504). August 2026 was about 7% above September 2025. Over the same months Manhattan as a whole fell about 9%. The yellow taxi share stayed between about 4% and 6.5% every month.
Where trips go
The top destination is the zone itself (9.1%), then Washington Heights North (7.4%) and trips that leave the city (6.1%). Hamilton Heights (4.5%), Inwood (4.1%) and Central Harlem North (3.8%) follow. Only 10.5% of app pickups and 32.9% of yellow pickups were charged the Congestion Relief Zone fee. 2.8% of app pickups went to an airport.
Fares, tips and pay by sector
| From zone 244 | Yellow taxi | Green cab | App |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median fare (before tips, tolls, fees) | $26.08 | $25.40 | $18.53 |
| Median miles | 6.2 | 5.35 | 3.74 |
| Tip rate | 7.3% (card trips) | 20.6% (card trips) | 3.8% |
Taxi trips from here are long, while app trips are shorter and local. Median app driver pay is $16.17 per trip, above the $14.98 median for Manhattan's "Boro Zone" zones (tips and tolls not included). Green cab riders who pay by card tip far more than yellow riders here.
Stands and curb signs
The signs near West 168th Street read "Taxi / FHV Stand", unlike the plain "Taxi Stand" signs elsewhere. Read the posted sign before you stop. Under TLC rules, a for-hire driver must not pick up at a taxi stand (80-19(d)(2)); if a sign seems to say otherwise, check with TLC. The zone is in the Hail Zone, so green cabs may take hails and use taxi stands here (Chapter 80, §80-19(b)(2) and (d)(1)). More: taxi stand rules and relief stands.
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.
- Washington Heights South: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 244 (Washington Heights South, 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.
- Washington Heights South: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 244, 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.
- Washington Heights South: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 244 (Washington Heights South, Manhattan) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- Washington Heights South: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 244, 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 2,023,434 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- Washington Heights South: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 244, 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 2,050,280 drop-offs.
- Washington Heights South: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 244, 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).
- Washington Heights South: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 244 (Washington Heights South, 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
How busy is Washington Heights South for taxi and app drivers?
It had 2,023,434 pickups from September 2025 to August 2026, about 5,544 a day, more than any other zone in Washington Heights or Inwood. 94% were app trips, 5.5% yellow taxi and 0.5% green cab.
Do many trips from here go to New Jersey?
The data shows that 6.1% of all pickups here end outside New York City. It does not say where. No Manhattan zone north of 59th Street sends a larger share of its trips out of the city.
Who pays the George Washington Bridge toll?
The Port Authority collects GWB tolls only in the direction entering New York. As of October 12, 2026 a car pays $16.79 peak or $14.79 off-peak with a NY or NJ E-ZPass, $19.55 Mid-Tier and $23.30 by mail. See our GWB page for who pays on a TLC trip.
Where are the relief stands in zone 244?
DOT lists two taxi and FHV relief stands: 6 spaces on the south side of West 181st Street between Pinehurst and Fort Washington Avenues, and 2 spaces on West 163rd Street between St. Nicholas Avenue and Broadway (8 a.m. to 7 p.m., except Sunday). Both have a 1-hour limit.
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
- Port Authority of NY & NJ: Tolls panynj.gov
- NYC DOT: Taxi and For-Hire Vehicle Relief Stands 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
- NYC Open Data: Street Centerline (CSCL, inkn-q76z) 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.