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The World Trade Center zone (TLC zone 261) is an airport and long-trip zone. 12% of app pickups here went to an airport, and three airports are in the top ten destinations. Because trips are long, the median app driver pay was $23.64 per trip, higher than any other zone in Manhattan's Yellow Zone except Randalls Island. The zone had 1,095,567 pickups in the 12 months to August 2026, about 3,002 a day.
Zone 261 at a glance
The TLC lookup table labels zone 261 a "Yellow Zone", a data label with no legal effect. Its neighbours are Battery Park City, TriBeCa/Civic Center, Seaport, Financial District North, Financial District South and Battery Park. On the city's street centerline map, West Street (Route 9A) and Hugh L. Carey Tunnel roads run through it.
Where trips from here go
The top destination code is "Outside NYC" (6.1% of pickups). Next are TriBeCa/Civic Center and LaGuardia Airport (4.5% each), then Newark Airport (3.0%) and Times Sq/Theatre District (2.9%). JFK is 8th at 2.8%. Together the three airports take about 10% of all pickups. It works both ways: LaGuardia is the second-largest source of riders arriving here (4.5% of drop-offs), and JFK is in the top ten too.
When rides start and end here
On weekdays, people arrive in the morning (drop-offs peak at 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.) and leave in the evening (pickups peak at 8 p.m., with 6 p.m. and 5 p.m. close). Saturday has only 8% more pickups than a weekday and peaks at 5 p.m. Sunday pickups are highest from noon to 2 p.m. Late nights are small: only 13.3% of Sunday pickups start between midnight and 5 a.m.
The year had a clear winter dip. October 2025 was the busiest month (107,904 pickups); February 2026 was 30% lower (75,445), and January was also slow (81,603).
Fares and driver pay
The median app trip from here was 4.53 miles and 22.4 minutes, with a $33.32 fare and $23.64 driver pay. App riders tipped more than in most of Manhattan: $2.71 on average, 6.3% of the fare (the Yellow Zone middle is 5.7%). Yellow trips had a median of 3.47 miles and a $22.60 meter fare, with 21.0% card tips. Remember that app pay excludes tolls and tips, and that "pay per engaged hour" ($68.76) leaves out waiting time.
Tolls, the congestion zone and other lines
- Congestion Relief Zone. The zone is south of 60th Street, but the MTA excludes West Street/Route 9A and the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel connections to West Street, which run through it. The fee was on 97.7% of app pickups and 95.4% of yellow pickups. When it applies, the rider pays $1.50 (app) or $0.75 (taxi) as of 2026-10-12 (Congestion Relief Zone toll).
- Airport trips. If your airport route uses the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, its toll page has the rates; the airport trip helper works out a whole trip.
- 20 mph slow zone. All of zone 261 is south of Canal Street, inside NYC DOT's Lower Manhattan Regional Slow Zone.
Stands and practical notes
DOT's sign file (checked 2026-10-12) shows three taxi-stand locations in the zone:
- Fulton Street between Broadway and Church Street (south side);
- Carlisle Street between Washington Street and West Street (north side);
- Albany Street between Washington and Greenwich Streets (south side), signed 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day.
There is no DOT relief stand in zone 261. App drivers may not pick up at a taxi stand (TLC Rule 80-19(d)(2)), and yellow drivers must not cruise for hails within 100 feet of one (80-19(a)(4)(ii)). See taxi stand rules.
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.
- World Trade Center: trip facts by sector — Key trip facts for taxi zone 261 (World Trade Center, 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.
- World Trade Center: when trips start, by hour — Average pickups per day in each hour in zone 261, 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.
- World Trade Center: pickups by month — Trips starting in taxi zone 261 (World Trade Center, Manhattan) each month, by sector.NYC TLC Trip Record Data (yellow, green, high-volume FHV), Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 · pulled Oct 12, 2026
- World Trade Center: where trips from here go — Top drop-off zones for trips starting in zone 261, 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 1,095,567 pickups. 'Outside NYC' = zone 265.
- World Trade Center: where trips to here come from — Top pickup zones for trips ending in zone 261, 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 1,041,711 drop-offs.
- World Trade Center: when trips arrive, by hour — Average drop-offs per day in each hour in zone 261, 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).
- World Trade Center: drop-offs by month — Trips ending in taxi zone 261 (World Trade Center, 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 many trips from the World Trade Center go to the airport?
12.0% of app pickups in zone 261 went to an airport, the third-highest share of any Manhattan zone after Times Sq/Theatre District and Roosevelt Island. LaGuardia (4.5% of all pickups), Newark (3.0%) and JFK (2.8%) are all in the top ten destinations.
How much do app drivers earn per trip from the WTC zone?
The median driver pay on Uber/Lyft trips starting in zone 261 was $23.64 (before tips and tolls). Among Manhattan's Yellow Zone zones, only Randalls Island had a higher median. App tips averaged $2.71 a trip.
When are WTC pickups busiest?
On weekday evenings, with a top hour of 8 p.m. (about 232 pickups). Weekday drop-offs peak at 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. On Sundays pickups are highest from noon to 2 p.m.
Is there a taxi stand at the World Trade Center?
DOT's sign file (checked 2026-10-12) shows current taxi-stand signs on Fulton Street (Broadway to Church Street), Carlisle Street (Washington Street to West Street) and Albany Street (Washington to Greenwich Streets, 5–8 p.m. daily). There is no DOT relief stand in the zone.
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 tolls mta.info
- NYC Open Data: NYC Street Centerline (CSCL) data.cityofnewyork.us
- NYC DOT: Speed limit reductions and Lower Manhattan Regional Slow Zone (Oct 2024) nyc.gov
- NYC Open Data: Parking Regulation Locations and Signs (DOT, nfid-uabd) data.cityofnewyork.us
- NYC Open Data: Taxi and FHV Relief Stands (DOT, vqu8-xef9) data.cityofnewyork.us
- TLC Rules, Chapter 80 (Drivers) nyc.gov
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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.