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Choosing a Car Seat for Taxis
Which type of car seat will work best in a taxi? It has to be convenient if I'm going to use it!
Infant Seats
When selecting an infant seat for frequent taxi use:
- Bigger is better. Choose one with a 30+ lb weight limit, since these will last much longer than smaller models and barely weigh more (plus what's an extra 1 or 2 lbs once you have a chubby 13 lb baby strapped in??)
- Make sure the car seat will fit securely in your own vehicle, if possible in the center position
- Ensure compatibility between your car seat and your stroller, Please see our stroller compatibility tip sheet to find out whether your preferred stroller and car seat will work together. Since the car seat may one day save your child's life, consider selecting your car seat first and basing your stroller purchase on your car seat, not vice versa.
Here's a list of 30+ lb infant carrier car seats:
Find out how to install your infant carrier without the base in our Taxi Videos section. It takes approximately 1 minute to correctly install most infant carriers without the base (once you've practiced a few times).
Convertible Seats
Once your child is too big for his infant carrier a convertible seat is the way to go, since convertible seats allow your child to remain rear-facing, which is 5 times safer than forward-facing. Although most are not nearly as portable as infant carriers, a few will work with stroller wheels for easy transport around the city.
-5-33 lbs rear-facing, 20-40 lbs forward-facing.
-Weighs only 11 lbs!
-Installs VERY easily with seatbelt. Watch our installation video
-Can be used with Combi Coccoro Flash stroller wheels (sold separately).
-Great for taxis and planes and good as a travel stroller/car seat combo. |
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-5-30 lbs rear-facing, forward to 40 lbs.
-Built-in stroller wheels.
**Note: Sit N' Stroll will not install securely in many cars. Due to location of belt routing path (over baby’s legs rear-facing and across baby’s chest forward-facing), you must install the Sit N' Stroll with child in seat and uninstall the car seat before removing child from seat.**
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Forward-Facing Seats
If your child is too tall or heavy for rear-facing, you can continue to use one of the convertible seats mentioned above in forward-facing mode (provided he fits) or purchase a portable forward-facing only child safety seat.
- Safety 1st Go Hybrid (formely the Safeguard Go) 5-point-harness up to 60 lbs, backless booster to 100 lbs. Requires top tether when using 5-point-harness. Lightweight (9lbs) and fits in travel bag.
Booster seats and Travel Vests
4-8 year olds are 59% safer in boosters than with just a seat belt. Boosters keep the seat belt on the strongest parts of the body--the hip bones and collar bone. Without a booster, a child is at risk for safety belt syndrome – lower spinal cord injuries in addition to injury to the abdominal organs including the liver, kidneys, spleen, intestine, and bladder – as the lap belt rides up over the child’s underdeveloped hip bones and into the abdomen. Boosters require no installation. Here are a few backless boosters & one vest that all weigh less than 5 pounds (making them easy to take in a taxi).
Backless Booster Seats
Travel Vest
- Safe Traffic System Ride Safer Travel Vest (1.4 lbs). This vest functions like a booster seat to keep the vehicle's seat belt properly positioned on the child's body & is so compact it will fit in a small purse
Note – the Cosco/Safety 1st Tote N’ Go DX is also a vest but functions not as a booster seat, but as a forward-facing car seat. With any forward-facing car seat, the goal is to keep the child’s head from traveling forward in a crash. Unfortunately, I have not been able to satisfactorily install the Tote N’Go in any taxi – a child riding in it would be able to bend all the way forward, their chest touching their thighs, allowing the head to travel dangerously far forward, possibly hitting the divider screen.
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