2018: A Year (of Trips) in Review
by Stephan Schmidt, Policy Analyst at the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission.
2018 marked another year of rapid growth and change in New York City’s taxi and for-hire vehicle industry. To ring in the New Year, let’s take a quick look back at last year’s trip trends to see what we can learn.
Brooklynites Love to Share
Since the TLC began collecting data on shared rides in 2017, both the volume and percentage of shared trips has increased across the city. Nowhere is this trend more apparent than in Brooklyn. Seven of the top ten neighborhoods for total shared ride pick-ups are in the borough, with the remaining three in Manhattan. Crown Heights North was the top area for shared pick-ups, with over half a million in 2018, eclipsing East New York, in second place, by more than 150,000 trips.
Seven of the top ten neighborhoods for shared ride drop-offs are in Brooklyn as well, including the top five. Crown Heights North again is the most frequent location, with 604,000 drop-offs, over 200,000 more than runner-up Bushwick South. Astoria, the highest ranked location in Queens, came in at number ten.
Manhattan is Number One
Even as the for-hire vehicle (FHV) industry grows in the outer boroughs, Manhattan is still home to the most taxi and FHV trips in the city. With 14.5 million combined pick-ups and drop-offs across all industry sectors, Midtown Center was the busiest area for trips in New York in 2018. There were more than two million more trips in this area than the next most popular neighborhood, the Upper East Side South. Rounding out the top five neighborhoods was Clinton East (Hell’s Kitchen), the East Village, and Union Square. The busiest neighborhood outside of Manhattan and excluding the airports was Crown Heights North in Brooklyn, which ranked 25th.
Queens Reigns Supreme for Black Cars and Liveries
Despite the emergence of app-based transportation options, traditional community car services still serve Queens residents well. The borough was home to eight of the top ten locations for smaller FHV base pick-ups, and nine of the top ten locations for drop-offs. Coming in number one in both categories was Flushing, with a combined 291,000 trips beginning or ending in that neighborhood. Both JFK and LaGuardia airports also ranked highly.
Harlem is a Green Cab Hot Spot
Green cabs were busy in Harlem in 2018. There are four taxi zones that combine to make Harlem: East Harlem North and South, Central Harlem, and Central Harlem North. These areas were all in the top ten for green cab pick-ups and drop-offs, holding the top three spots in each. Combined, there were more than 2.9 million pick-ups and one million drop-offs in green cabs in Harlem in 2018. Astoria and Jackson Heights in Queens both ranked highly in green cab pick-ups and drop-offs as well.
