Zipcar and Carseats

[Anonymous]

We have lived in DC very happily without a car for 5 years. We live on the Hill and can comfortably walk or Metro for almost everything we need, and rely on Zipcar when we can't. We'd like to continue our car-free existence after the baby is born, but are wondering about the feasibility of car-seats in a Zipcar. Has anyone done the car-free thing with a very young infant? Does it work? We're certainly willing to put up with some amount of hassle to avoid the expense, parking, maintenance and environmental impact of buying a car.

[Anonymous]

Hi. We used Zipcar when we first arrived in DC with a four month old. It was no problem to install our carseat each time we used Zipcar. We used a Graco Snugride and just either used a seatbelt to fit the seat or the latches if the car had them. Most of the time the cars are new so latches were not a problem at all. Once your child gets bigger you can easily use a Britax or similar and just install as needed. Only thing I can forsee being a problem is lugging it to where the Zipcar is located if it is a distance from your house.

[Anonymous]

Up to 1 year or about 22 pounds, most car seats can snap-into a stroller - so getting to the shared-car is easy. (You can buy pretty cheap strollers that will fit your baby car seat if yours didn't come with one).

After they out grow this, then the car seat is much heavier. For some reason, this niche (but growing!) market is not well served. There are a few choices, however. You can either buy a car seat that actually converts into a 'kind-of-stroller' or buy a relatively easy-to-connect set of wheels-and-handle.

Both are sold by this company I think, and I can say that the GoGokidz has been used alot by me in a shared car situation, and by my wife & myself in a taxi situation. It's not perfect, and not really built for long says shopping, but is good to get to and from a car.

http://gogobabyz.com/products/gogo_kids.html

Kevin McLaughlin

CarSharing.net

[Anonymous]

We have a car seat that we bought for traveling that is significantly lighter than our usual car seat, so if you are shopping for that you can probably find it. We never had problems fitting in taxis or rental cars (using seatbelts usually), but I have to say that it would probably be a pain for one person alone to lug it around along with your child and anything you shopped for.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks! sounds like it do-able with some research and some planning.

[Anonymous]

My sugggestion would be to have one of you go and pick up the Zipcar and bring it to your home/building and then install the seat rather than bringing the child to the car before the seat is installed.

[Anonymous]

Not sure how that works.

[Anonymous]

on a related note - did anyone use zipcar to bring baby home from the hospital? did you run into any problems with that from the hospital? It is my understanding that they check out the carseat before they let you take him/her home.

thanks!