NYC Taxi Medallions Continue Gaining Ground on TLC Plates as 1,000+ Cabs Return to Streets
Since September 2024, over 1,000 taxi medallions have come out of storage, as Uber and Curb dispatches have redirected app demand from TLC-plated FHVs to yellow cabs.
Uber and Lyft NYC Trips to Non-Taxi For-Hire Vehicles (FHVs) Rose 1.2% YoY in Sep 2025: Uber regained market share from recently resurgent Lyft.
Yellow Cab Trips Up 17.0% in September; 3,069 Medallions in Storage: Growth driven by more cabs returning to service and Uber / Curb e-hail dispatches — ~10,520 taxis active, including 5,746 medallions attached to WAVs.
Green Rides Record: In September, 21.8% of all Uber and Lyft trips in NYC were completed in an EV or WAV. The mandated 25% EV / WAV requirement for 2026 is likely to be met, making an EV-only plate release highly unlikely.
Total NYC for-hire vehicle (FHV) trips across all sectors grew by 5.6% YoY in August 2025, reaching an average of 811,249 daily trips.
Welcome to our monthly update on NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) time-based ⏱️ utilization rates (UR), along with a summary of the regulator’s monthly Factbook update, including analysis of industry trip trends.
Utilization rate (UR) can be simply described as a measure of how busy a NYC TLC-licensed driver working for Uber and/or Lyft is while logged into the apps.
In late June, the TLC passed new driver pay rules aimed at ending Uber and Lyft access restrictions, commonly referred to as “lockouts”. As part of the new rule package, the regulator is introducing a second UR metric based on distance 📍, to complement the existing time-based UR.
Uber & Lyft: August 2025 UR
🖤 Uber’s standalone time-based utilization rate (UR) decreased to 52.6% in August 2025 from 54.4 % in July. In August 2024, Uber had a lockout-influenced UR of 54.8%. Note, current UR does not reflect the existence of a driver waitlist and Uber dispatches to yellow cabs, which are not subject to high-volume app (HV) driver pay rules.
🩷 Lyft’s standalone UR increased from 52.8% in July to 53.4% in August 2025. Its August 2024 standalone UR was 52.1%, which was lockout-influenced. As with Uber, this UR does not account for the existence of a driver waitlist. Lyft does not (currently) dispatch to NYC yellow cabs.
Note: We’ve recently heard of NYC TLC drivers being taken off waitlists if they plan to drive an electric vehicle (EV), possibly related to the Green Rides mandate (see section below).
Uber vs. Lyft NYC
In September 2025, we estimate Lyft’s NYC trips rose 11.2% year-over-year (YoY), while Uber’s fell 2.2%, excluding yellow cab dispatches.
Lyft claimed a 27.7% TLC-plated FHV trip market share (vs. Uber). Last month (August), Lyft’s TLC-plated market share was 29.6%.
Uber’s e-hail dispatches to yellow cabs are likely excluded from these HV trip statistics. The company recently revealed it dispatched nearly 20% of all yellow cab trips in March. Accounting for this taxi uptick, overall Uber NYC trip growth appears to be +3.7% YoY and +2.5% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ).
Remember, movements in Uber or Lyft’s NYC trip share do not necessarily mean revenue share is affected (i.e., price vs. volume).
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Uber & Lyft NYC Trips Up 1.2%
In September 2025, on a trips-per-day basis, Uber and Lyft NYC (HV or high-volume) trips, excluding taxi e-hail dispatches, increased by 1.2% YoY, averaging 647,821 daily trips.
HV sector trip trends appear to indicate flatlining growth. Trailing twelve-month (TTM) HV sector trip growth, excluding taxi e-hails, was also +1.2%.
Based on August 2025 data, Uber and Lyft held a combined 76.6% market share of legal NYC trips across all for-hire vehicle (FHV) sectors. Notably, Uber’s standalone market share does not include taxi dispatches technically facilitated through Curb. If Uber were credited with one-fifth of the 14.2% yellow cab market share, Uber and Lyft’s combined share of the entire NYC market would rise to roughly 80%.
Total NYC FHV trips across all sectors grew 5.6% YoY (August 2025 vs. August 2024), averaging 811,249 daily trips.
NYC Taxi Trips Up 17%, 3,069 Medallions Remain in Storage
As of September 2025, 3,069 taxi medallions remain in storage, down from 3,196 in the previous month’s Factbook—a decrease of 127. In the past year, more than 1,000 NYC taxi medallions have come out of storage.
Taxi medallion trips—including those dispatched via Uber, Curb, or Arro—rose 17.0% YoY in September. Over the trailing twelve-month (TTM) period, taxi sector trips have also grown 17.0%. 5,746, or 54.6% of all active taxi medallions, are now attached to a wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV), satisfying the first part of a federal court mandate. By the end of 2028, 50% of the 13,587 authorized taxi medallions—6,794 in total—must be attached to WAVs.
Yellow cabs averaged 141,701 daily trips in September 2025, up from 121,101 in September 2024. For comparison, 11,462 active cabs in September 2019 averaged 217,790 trips/day—about 19 per taxi vs. roughly 13.5 in September 2025.
While yellow cabs are showing strong growth and gaining trip share relative to other FHV sectors, the industry still remains approximately 30% below pre-pandemic trips-per-taxi levels, with ~944 fewer active taxis like-for-like (LfL).
Based on August 2025 data, yellow cabs held a 14.2% market share of all legal NYC for-hire transportation trips across all FHV sectors.
‘FHV - Other’ Trip Surge
‘FHV – Other’—which encompasses NYC traditional luxury, black car, and livery bases—recorded a 36.5% YoY increase in trips in August (revised July figures show a 73.1% increase in sector trips), representing 9.0% of all citywide FHV trips. The TLC has not updated its FHV Base Aggregate Report with trip data beyond April 2024, limiting visibility into the specific drivers of this sector’s growth.
It is also worth noting that the TLC’s trip data for ‘FHV – Other’ not only lags one month behind other FHV sectors, but is also subject to routine revisions after initial publication. These revisions account for discrepancies in historical market share and previous growth figures reported by AutoMarketplace.
SHL Distress
The green cab, or street hail livery (SHL), sector remains distressed, with trips down 10.2% YoY in September. Green cabs averaged 1,630 trips per day.
In September 2019, there were 2,876 actively working green cabs, compared to 595 today.
Low participation by green cab drivers and owners in the SHL Pilot Program further underscores the ongoing struggles of this NYC for-hire vehicle (FHV) sector.
Another Green Rides Record
TLC’s Green Rides mandate—requiring electric vehicles (EVs) or wheelchair-accessible vehicles (WAVs) for high-volume (HV) bases (currently only Uber and Lyft)—set another record in September 2025.:
21.8% of all Uber and Lyft NYC trips in September were completed in either an EV or WAV.
The next Green Rides benchmark, set for 2026, requires 25% of all Uber and Lyft NYC trips be completed in an EV or WAV. While we have serious doubts about whether the mandate will remain in place, the 2026 benchmark requirement is likely to be met.
As a reminder, in 2023 alone, more than 9,000 EV-restricted TLC plates were issued primarily to promote electric vehicle adoption under Green Rides. Since WAVs remain exempt from the FHV License Pause (TLC Plate Cap), we believe it is highly unlikely that another EV-only plate release will be included in TLC’s 2026 FHV License Review report, scheduled for publication early next year.
AutoMarketplace reports on New York City’s for-hire transportation (TLC) industry and the wider automotive mobility landscape.
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Many uber drivers are complaining about uber sending jobs to yellow cabs. Can you explain why Uber made this decision?