Taxi, Uber, and Lyft Price Comparison in New York City

NYC Taxi, Uber & Lyft Price Comparison

Based on trip-level records published by the TLC. Ridehail fares and driver pay exclude shared trips. Additional notes, including some known data issues

From

Since 2009 2019

Avg Total Cost, Including Fare, Extras & Tip

Avg Driver Pay, Excluding Tip

% of Base Passenger Fare Paid to Driver

Avg Base Fare Minus Driver Pay

Total Trips

Avg Base Fare, Excluding Extras & Tip

Avg Tip

Avg Extra Charges*

Notes

Data comes from trip-level records provided by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission. The TLC website includes this disclaimer: “The TLC publishes base trip record data as submitted by the bases, and we cannot guarantee or confirm their accuracy or completeness”

Code to process the TLC data is available on GitHub

The code includes logic to exclude outlier trips that have unreasonable time, distance, or fare. As of 2022, the outlier logic removes 3% of taxi and 1% of ridehail trips

Ridehail fare and driver pay metrics exclude shared trips, due to reporting inconsistencies in driver pay. Shared trips accounted for 19% of ridehail trips in 2019, and 1% in 2022. Total trip counts exclude shared trips starting in June 2017, which is when the TLC began identifying shared trips in the dataset. Trip counts before June 2017 include both shared and non-shared trips, which is why there appears to be a decline in ridehail trips in June 2017

Uber data is missing some “extra charges” from 7/22/2022 through 8/14/2022, in particular congestion surcharges, airport fees, and Black Car Fund payments. These trips are not removed from the dataset, but average Uber extra charges—and total costs—will appear artifically low for those months

The TLC publishes Uber and Lyft trip records since 2015, but with different schemas over time. Drop off locations are available since June 2017; fare and driver pay since February 2019

Raw taxi trip data does not include tip amounts for cash fares. This dashboard assumes a 15% tip for cash fares. As of 2022, 77% of taxi fares pay with credit card, and credit card fares average 18% tip

The dataset includes trips that began within NYC, regardless of where they dropped off. For example, a trip from LaGuardia to Westchester would be included in the dataset, but a trip from Westchester to LaGuardia would not be

Neighborhood boundaries defined by the NYC Taxi Zones map

Graphs built with Highcharts

Questions or issues: todd@toddwschneider.com