Public transportation without infant car seat?

[Anonymous]

I'm a bit confused and slightly troubled. We'll be traveling in Europe next months with our 6-month-old and will need to use buses, taxis, trains. How do you ensure your child's safety without a car seat? He's outgrowing the infant seat as we speak so we won't be able to bring it (which would've snapped nicely into his stroller for sight seeing). We obviously won't want to take along a convertible seat for the bus or short taxi rides since we'll be sightseeing. So how do we ride these but make sure our child is safe? I don't think buses typically have seat belts anyway (neither do trains). I was thinking of getting one of those travel vests for taxis, but I actually think DS is slightly too small for these. Renting a car would be the most obvious answer to avoid any of these dilemmas, but that's not a feasible option for us.

Any suggestions?? (Bracing myself for any flaming)

[Anonymous]

You might want to be specific about where you are traveling so you can get good information. I traveled in Europe and Asia with my kids when they were young and in the places I visited, car seats were not an option. The only thing you could do was hold your kid. But, other countries may be different than those that I visited.

[Anonymous]

OP here. We're going to Western Europe - car seats are definitely an option in cars, but logistics make it hard for us to haul it around for short taxi rides or bus rides that we need to take for sightseeing. I should mention that one of the buses we need to ride travels on the highway from one city to another.

[Anonymous]

Either you lug along a carseat, or you cross your fingers. I don't know of any middle ground. FWIW, I would cross my fingers. I took DD on buses and trains all the time around the DC area at that age, and obviously didn't use a carseat (I've never seen a carseat, actually, on a bus or a train... I realize you're talking about intercity buses and taxis too, which are a little different -- but if it were me, I'd just go without.) If it worries you too much, then it may be a good idea to postpone this type of vacation several years until you're okay with the children riding on buses, etc., the same way you do (presumably unbuckled!)

[Anonymous]

Not sure how it is in Western Europe, but we have no car so we rely solely on PT. We keep DD in our laps on the buses and taxis since she has outgrown her infant car seat. Have you tried getting an Ergo? It's a carrier. You can keep DC in it while you are traveling provided they do not get too antsy.

[Anonymous]

I have never seen a carseat installed on any form of public transportation, bus or train. I have heard of people using ones in taxis. I use public transportation in DC with DS regularly, bus and metro, and it has never occured to me to use a car seat. Travel in cars is just more dangerous. If I were you I would skip the carseat, skip the taxis, and jsut take public transportation everywhere. Every large city in western europe has a public transportation option to/from airport and around town.

[Anonymous]

Recently returned from Norway where the taxis literally would not take us without a car seat.