Cab and car service in Harlem

Harlem sits at the top of Manhattan's yellow-cab gradient. Below 96th Street cabs are everywhere. Above 110th they are not, and the difference is sharpest on the residential blocks and after dark.

Our cab service in Harlem NY covers the whole neighbourhood — Central, East and West — 24 hours a day, with the price agreed before you travel.

Where we pick up

Central Harlem — 125th Street between Fifth Avenue and St. Nicholas; Lenox Avenue (Malcolm X Boulevard); Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh); Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth); Strivers' Row on 138th and 139th; Mount Morris Park and the blocks around Marcus Garvey Park.

East Harlem / El Barrio — Third Avenue from 96th up to 125th; Lexington around 116th; La Marqueta on Park Avenue; the Wagner and Jefferson Houses; and the 116th Street corridor.

West Harlem and Hamilton Heights — Broadway from 125th to 145th; Amsterdam Avenue; Convent Avenue by City College; Sugar Hill around 145th and St. Nicholas; Manhattanville and the Columbia campus on 125th.

Morningside Heights — Columbia around 116th and Broadway, Riverside Drive, Morningside Drive, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at 112th.

Connecting from transit

Subway. The 2 and 3 run under Lenox Avenue. The A, B, C and D use St. Nicholas and Frederick Douglass, with the express 125th Street stop the busiest in the neighbourhood. The 4, 5 and 6 run under Lexington on the east side. The 1 follows Broadway through Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights.

Metro-North. Harlem–125th Street is the only Metro-North station in Manhattan north of Grand Central, and all three lines stop there. For anyone travelling to Westchester, the Hudson Valley or Connecticut it is a significant time saving over doubling back to Grand Central — and the walk from the platform to a car on Park Avenue is short. We meet trains here constantly.

Buses. The M60 Select Bus runs along 125th Street directly to LaGuardia, which is genuinely useful and also slow with luggage. The M100, M101, M2, M7 and M10 cover the avenues; the Bx15 crosses into the Bronx.

Trips we run most

Getting to the airports

Harlem has a real geographic advantage on airports that people rarely exploit. LaGuardia over the RFK Bridge is often quicker than it is from Midtown, because you avoid the East Side entirely. Newark via the George Washington Bridge is frequently faster than JFK — the opposite of the pattern almost everywhere else in Manhattan.

If you are choosing a flight and departing from Harlem, that is worth knowing before you book the ticket.

Traffic, bridges and tolls

Free bridges to the Bronx. The Willis Avenue, Third Avenue, Madison Avenue, 145th Street and Macombs Dam bridges all cross the Harlem River at no charge. There is rarely a reason to pay a toll for a short Bronx trip, and we will not route you over one without explaining why.

The RFK (Triborough) Bridge is tolled and is the fast route to Queens and LaGuardia. Usually worth it.

The George Washington Bridge is tolled and is Harlem's route to New Jersey. The approach along the Cross Bronx or 178th Street is the slow part, not the bridge itself.

125th Street is the neighbourhood's main crosstown artery and it is busy most of the day — commercial loading, bus lanes and heavy pedestrian traffic. For a crosstown run, 135th or 116th is often quicker.

Harlem River Drive and the FDR are the fast way south along the east side when they are flowing.

Congestion pricing. Harlem sits entirely above 60th Street, so trips staying in the neighbourhood or heading north are unaffected. Trips continuing below 60th carry the charge, and it is included in your quote.

Events. The African American Day Parade in September along Adam Clayton Powell, Harlem Week in August, and Sunday morning church traffic around the major congregations on Lenox and Adam Clayton Powell. All predictable, all worth planning around.

Venues, institutions and destinations

Culture — the Apollo Theater on 125th, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on Malcolm X Boulevard, Harlem Stage, the National Jazz Museum, and Minton's Playhouse.

Education — Columbia's Morningside and Manhattanville campuses, City College on Convent Avenue, Columbia University Irving Medical Center at 168th, Barnard, Teachers College and the Bank Street College of Education.

Hospitals — Harlem Hospital Center on Lenox at 135th, Mount Sinai Morningside on Amsterdam at 114th, and NewYork-Presbyterian's Columbia campus just north in Washington Heights.

Parks and open space — Marcus Garvey Park, Morningside Park, St. Nicholas Park, Riverbank State Park, Jackie Robinson Park, and the northern end of Central Park at the Harlem Meer.

Eating and going out — the restaurant strip along Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Lenox Avenue's dining, Red Rooster, and the 125th Street retail corridor.

Booking a Harlem pickup

Call (888) 652-7136 or use the form. Give us the street address and cross street — the avenues here carry two names each (Lenox and Malcolm X, Seventh and Adam Clayton Powell, Eighth and Frederick Douglass) and a cross street removes any doubt.

For Metro-North, give us the train time. For a flight, the flight number. For a show at the Apollo, book the return leg when you book the outbound.