NYC Ground Transportation Guides

Most people never look at how a New York fare is assembled, which is exactly why the number at the end of a trip so often surprises them. It is not one rate. It is a drop charge, a unit charge that switches between distance and time, and several surcharges that stack on top.

Once you can see the parts, you can predict which trips the meter wins and which it loses — and that is the whole question when you are deciding between hailing something and arranging a car ahead.

The anatomy of a metered fare

Every yellow and green cab in New York charges the same TLC-set rates, and they assemble like this:

An initial charge applied on entry, every trip, before the vehicle moves.

A unit charge — the part that matters — billed either per fifth of a mile or per 60 seconds, depending on how fast you are moving. More on that below.

Two fixed surcharges that apply regardless of route: a state surcharge and an improvement surcharge.

A congestion surcharge on most trips that begin, end or pass through Manhattan south of 96th Street.

Time-of-day surcharges — a weekday late-afternoon peak, and a separate overnight surcharge.

A congestion relief zone charge for vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street. This is a newer and separate thing from the TLC congestion surcharge above, and both can apply to the same trip.

Tolls at cost, for whichever crossing the driver uses.

Airport exceptions. JFK to and from Manhattan has a published flat fare instead of the meter. Trips leaving JFK carry an access charge. Trips to Newark carry an out-of-city surcharge on top of an uncapped meter.

Current amounts for all of these are published by the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission, and our fare comparison worksheet applies them so you can see a specific trip build up. We keep the figures in one place on this site rather than scattering them across pages that would drift apart.

The twelve-mile-an-hour rule

This is the single most useful thing to know about a New York cab.

Above 12 mph the meter charges you for distance. Below 12 mph — including completely stationary — it charges you for time.

Manhattan's average traffic speed sits around 8 mph through the weekday evening peak. So for most of a 5pm crosstown trip, the meter is not measuring your journey at all. It is measuring the traffic light.

That is why the gap between a metered fare and an agreed price widens exactly when you least want it to, and why "arrange it ahead" is advice about risk rather than about price alone. A quote transfers the traffic risk to the operator. The meter leaves it with you.

Where each option genuinely wins

Short, fast, central — the meter. A crosstown hop at 11am is not worth arranging in advance.
Long, slow, outer-borough — a quote, usually comfortably.
Manhattan to or from JFK — the published flat fare, most of the time. We say so on our own JFK page.
Anywhere to Newark — a quote. An out-of-city surcharge plus tolls on an uncapped meter is hard to beat any other way.
Waiting between stops — hourly hire, not a series of separate trips.
Rain, 4am, or an event letting out — a prearranged car, because the question stops being price and becomes whether a vehicle exists at all.

The patterns that beat the arithmetic

Three things affect availability more than any fare table, and all three are predictable:

Rain. The moment it starts, every occupied cab stays occupied and every free one is taken within a block. Demand spikes and supply does not.

The 4pm to 5pm shift change. Yellow cab shifts turn over in the late afternoon and drivers head for their garages with the off-duty light on. Availability drops at precisely the hour the peak surcharge starts and traffic speed bottoms out.

Outer-borough supply. Yellow cab density follows demand, which concentrates in Manhattan below 96th Street. Everywhere else availability thins, and thins further after about 10pm. Each borough page sets out the local reality.

The guides

NYC taxi vs private car service — the full head-to-head. Metered taxi, prearranged car and rideshare app compared on the things that actually decide the bill, with worked examples for a peak-hour trip and the same trip on a Sunday morning. Includes the cases where the honest answer is to hail one.

How to get a taxi in NYC — hail, e-hail, green boro taxi or booked car: where each one works, how to read the roof light, what airports allow and when to book ahead instead.

Fare comparison worksheet — enter the distance and the slow-traffic minutes and see a standard city meter assemble itself, surcharge by surcharge. It excludes tolls, tips and airport-specific fares, and says so.

Taxi, boro cab or prearranged car — how the three categories differ on pickup rules, where green boro taxis may and may not collect you, and your rights as a passenger, including the fact that a cab that stops for you cannot refuse an outer-borough trip.

What a quote from us includes

One number, agreed before you travel, covering the route, the tolls and the gratuity. It does not move for traffic, for weather, or for the hour you booked.

What a quote cannot cover is a change you make on the day — a route change, extra stops, or waiting beyond the agreed allowance. Those are charged at rates we tell you when you book rather than invented afterwards, and the allowance itself is confirmed with your reservation: on an airport pickup it runs from the actual landing time rather than the schedule.

How each service is quoted — per journey or per hour — is set out on the services hub. If the meter wins on your particular route, we would rather tell you that than take the booking.

Choosing a vehicle for this trip

Start with Economy Sedan if value is your priority and a sedan fits your passengers and bags. Choose an executive sedan for a black car arrival, a luxury SUV for more space, or a Sprinter for a group. Confirm the assigned model and luggage capacity before reserving. First-time customers can request 10% off their first ride; the discount and separately charged items are shown in the quote.

Your questions, answered

Why does the meter keep running when the cab is stopped?

Because below about 12 mph the meter switches from charging distance to charging time — one unit for every 60 seconds, moving or not. Above 12 mph the same unit buys you a fifth of a mile. That single threshold is why a three-mile trip can cost far less at 10pm than at 5pm: you are not paying for a longer journey, you are paying for the minutes the traffic takes off you.

Why is the same trip so much more expensive at 5pm?

Two things compound. Weekday late afternoons carry a peak surcharge. More importantly, average traffic speed in Manhattan drops to around 8 mph at that hour, and below the 12 mph crossover the meter charges by time rather than distance — so you pay for every minute you are not moving. The same physical journey can cost substantially more at peak than overnight, which is why an agreed price gets more attractive the worse the traffic is.

What is the difference between the congestion surcharge and the congestion relief zone charge?

They are two separate things and both can apply. The TLC congestion surcharge has applied for years to most yellow and green cab trips that begin, end or pass through Manhattan south of 96th Street. The congestion relief zone charge is newer and applies to vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street. Our worksheet lets you include each one separately so you can see what your specific trip actually attracts.

Is there a flat fare to the airports?

Only to JFK, and only from Manhattan — in either direction, plus surcharges and tolls. It is a genuinely good deal in heavy traffic and we will say so rather than talk you out of it. LaGuardia has no flat fare at all; it is metered with no cap. Newark is metered plus an out-of-city surcharge plus tolls in a yellow cab, which is why an agreed price almost always wins on that route.

How accurate is the fare worksheet?

Treat it as an illustration rather than a quote. It cannot know what traffic will do on the day, and it deliberately includes surcharges that flattering calculators leave out, so its numbers tend to run higher than tools quoting a bare metered estimate. It also excludes tolls, tips and airport-specific fares, and says so on the page. It is built to be honest rather than to win the booking.

Do these guides apply to rideshare apps too?

Partly. The traffic and availability patterns apply to everybody — rain, the 4pm shift change and the outer-borough supply gap affect any vehicle. The pricing does not: rideshare sets its own dynamic prices rather than following the TLC meter, so a surge multiplier can put it well above both a metered cab and an agreed price at exactly the moments demand spikes.