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-   -   How to safely travel in a cab with an infant carseat? (https://www.fodors.com/community/travel-tips-and-trip-ideas/how-to-safely-travel-in-a-cab-with-an-infant-carseat-863716/)

Meredith Oct 20th, 2010 07:35 AM

How to safely travel in a cab with an infant carseat?
 
I feel like this must be a stupid question, because surely people with babies and young children travel all the time in cabs and public transportation... but I am stumped. How do you safely strap a carseat into a cab? Are cabs equipped with some kind of harness or something? Or do people just hold their baby in their lap? And what about traveling on a public bus?

Our daughter is about 5 months old, and we are itching to start traveling with her in a few months. She will probably continue to use her infant carseat until she's about a year old. Currently, we have a base for the carseat that stays tightly strapped into our car, and the carseat easily snaps in and out of the base. So when we travel with her, are we supposed to take the base with us? That doesn't seem practical at all.

And what about convertible carseats (i.e., the kind that toddlers use) - do people travel with those as well?

Thanks for any input on this! I feel like there must be an easy solution, but I'd love to hear from anyone who has traveled with young children!

janisj Oct 20th, 2010 10:24 AM

Meredith: You'll probably get some answers but unfortunately this 'Travel Tips' forum is very slow. I'd suggest you repost you question over in the Lounge where many more folks will see it. This would seem to be the logical forum for this type of question, but the Lounge gets many, MANY times the traffic.

Meredith Oct 20th, 2010 11:12 AM

Thanks, JanisJ. I was going to post on the US forum but thought I'd get chastised for posting there instead of here. :) Same with the Lounge. But hey, I tried... off to the Lounge I go!

thursdaysd Oct 21st, 2010 03:45 AM

I never post on the lounge... But you should post this question on a country-specific forum, because the answer is likely to be different for different countries. I was just in Japan, for instance, and was surprised to see small children being held in the front seat....

suze Oct 21st, 2010 06:40 AM

That was my answer too, on your other thread. It depends the destination. In Mexico people usually just hold their babies on their laps and let the bigger kids jump around in the car/truck!

lavandula Oct 22nd, 2010 03:01 AM

I am glad you asked this question because I haven't got the answer either and would love to know how other people manage - I once tried to order a taxi with a carseat (compulsory here for babies and small children) and by the time I had to leave for my appointment the taxi hadn't arrived. I ended up walking across 2 suburbs with my baby in a sling. By the time my appointment was over, I received a phone call from the company - they had finally located a taxi with a carseat and wanted to know if I still wanted the cab. I said no and got a lift home with my husband who had left work by that stage. I've still never been in a cab with my child; another time we had to get to and from the airport we pre-paid for a shuttle with a carseat. It was luxury because they helped us with our bags too.

I am not shy of trains and buses but have fortunately never had to do them with my daughter, because it would still be difficult. The law here (Sydney / New South Wales) says you can bring a folding umbrella stroller onto buses; it would be impractical to travel with anything else on a train here because not every station has lifts to the platforms; some only have stairs or escalators and you would need a light stroller to be able to manage.

Lavandula


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