Expert: Suzan Jackson - 12/20/2007

Question
We live a few hours from NYC and I am dying to take my 3 and 1 year old girls for a short trip. The issue for us is lugging carseats around the city. We would take the train in, take the bus sightseeing tours, maybe the ferry and occasionally take a taxi. How do people do this with car seats? Since seeing our honeymoon video taken in NYC my daughter is asking daily when we will go and my husband is saying only after they are out of carseats.

Answer
Dear Stephanie -

Your plans to take your kids to NYC sound like fun.  There are no easy answers on the car seat question, though.

The only time during your trip when you'd really need them would be when you ride in a taxi.  NY law exempts taxis from car seat and seat belt laws, so you wouldn't be required to use car seats, but I can understand your reluctance to go without them (we've had some harrowing rides in NY cabs ourselves!)

Here is the explanation of the law:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/passenger/faq_pass.shtml#9

Carrying them around with you all day would be a real pain, unless you have (or can borrow) one of those convertible strollers that turns into a car seat, but I think even those are typically for babies under 1.  

If you choose to go without the car seats, you can still buckle your kids into the regular seat belts in the cabs.  They're safest in the lap belts in the back (usually center seats) without the chest strap, since it would hit kids around the neck or face.  You might also consider carrying smaller booster seats, just to bring the kids up higher so the regular seat belt fits better.

We traveled around NYC a few times with our kids when they were toddlers.  We just opted to go without car seats, even though we're very safety conscious.  We used seat belts and limited our taxi rides to times when it was really necessary.

Like I said, there are no easy answers to your question, but those are the laws and your options.  Hope that helps.

Sue Jackson