Before having kids getting around New York City was a non issue. I would take the subway, hail a cab, or just walk the city blocks if I had extra time. As with everything, life changes and now I have 3 kids to also transport from one activity to the next. I learned really quickly that although it may be the safest option, car seats are not exactly light weight “or” convenient to lug around. Let’s not even get started on trying to install one on the fly in a NYC yellow cab. Nine years ago my husband and I safely brought our son home from the hospital in a NYC cab and I can honestly say, we never fully installed another car seat for a temporary cab ride around the city again.

As a parent living in the Big Apple with kids, I’m happy to report things have changed for the better! I’ve recently partnered with Lyft and getting around with my toddler is now easier than ever by using the Lyft app. There’s a convenient Car Seat mode which allows me to select only drivers with a car seat. Since my daughter is only 2, she needs to be in a car seat for safety reasons, otherwise either myself or my husband is left struggling to hold her while she tries to sit in the seat by herself or tries to move around the car.

Lyft’s Car Seat mode offers the IMMI Go car seat which is a forward-facing seat for children over 12 months and between 31-52 inches tall and within 22-48 pounds. All Lyft drivers that provide the Car Seat mode have been trained and tested to properly install the IMMI Go car seat by third-party child passenger safety technicians. Not only have drivers been trained but they also have to pass a test to participate in the Car Seat program. This lifts a huge weight off of me knowing I don’t have to be responsible for properly installing a car seat and I can just simply secure my child into the car seat as I normally would.

Using the app is so easy. I simply request a ride as I normally would, but now there is a new feature in the line mode page which lets me select a  “Car Seat” option. I then set my pickup and drop-off location  and request the ride. The Car Seat feature will add an extra “$10” to any ride. Currently this feature is only available in New York City and I will also mention you can only have one car seat at a time.

I noticed the wait time was slightly longer than normal but as we all know when ordering a car, wait time varies and it could just be the time of day. It was worth the wait, however, because my driver immediately got out of the car and started to install the car seat checking and double checking that everything was safe and secure.

My 2 year old daughter was super excited and was feeling very special she was able to ride in the car seat. The IMMI Go car seat is very slim and compact which made our ride so much smoother. There was plenty of room in the car for all of our belongings and my 5 year old daughter.

This gives me such peace of mind knowing we can safely get around town without having to worry that I don’t have my own car seat. Now that I have used the car seat feature with Lyft, I’m going to be requesting this service with every ride.

I have a special coupon code for my readers to try out the service as well. COUPON CODE: GOTHAMLOVENYC for $5 off a car seat ride in New York City.

This post is sponsored by Lyft. I only work with brands that I love, and opinions I express are always my own.

XOXO,
Suzanne