Taxi use has plummeted on the Upper East Side since the opening of the Second Avenue Subway, a new report says. View Full Caption Petros Tsonis/Shutterstock

UPPER EAST SIDE — Taxi usage has dropped nearly 20 percent across much of the Upper East Side due to the arrival of the Second Avenue Subway, a new study shows.

Commuters in Lenox Hill, the western part of Yorkville and the southern part of the neighborhood are largely forgoing yellow cabs in favor of the new subway line, according to a report by New York University's Rudin Center for Transportation.

Credit: The Rudin Center for Transportation

While taxi drop-offs dwindled by 14 to 18 percent near the 72nd Street station, pickups have plummeted by roughly 20 percent near all three stations, the report states.

The study compared one week of pickups and drop-offs in January 2016 to a week in January 2017 to calculate the change.

In 2015, before the subway opened, 9 percent of residents in the eastern sections of Lenox Hill and Yorkville took taxis to and/or from work, according to the study, which used data from the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission.

"Given the high cost of taxis as a primary commute mode, taxi reliance correlates with higher-income populations...the [Second Avenue Subway] has supplied an essential affordable transportation mode on the Upper East Side for residents, reducing the neighborhood's reliance on taxis," the study states.

Figures from this January showed that ridership on the Second Avenue line grew by approximately 8,000 daily riders per week, hitting 155,000 daily riders on Friday, January 27, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.