Cold Wheels II: The Next Generation

Does anyone remember the GM Love Seat? It was a baby car seat popular in the 1980s. I don't know if it's still being made. Shaped like a large oval bucket, it could be buckled into rear-facing position using only the car's lap-belt - no permanent installations required. And best of all, it could be converted to a stroller once you reached your destination. The perfect solution for folks without their own car - you could use it in a taxi or a friend's car and not have to lug both carseat and baby around while you were trying to do your shopping! The only problem was that you could only use it until the baby was eight or nine months old. After that, in those days, the baby "graduated" to a front-facing carseat that relied on a bolt-and-tether system.

Nowadays, new cars are equipped with the necessary tether system so you don't have to get one installed and always rely on an equipped car to transport small children. But there is STILL, to my knowledge, no carseat for babies over nine months that also converts to a stroller.

My daughter and son-in-law are environmentally responsible folks who have opted not to own or maintain their own car. They do a lot of walking and cycling and bus travel but when they need a car for a longer trip, they rely on borrowing or renting one. So if they take a bus someplace, they can't accept a lift home unless the person driving them happens to have a spare carseat in the vehicle. When we all went to Toronto by train last summer, they had to bring a carseat and put it in checked baggage so that they would have it to get around town in if they needed it.

It ain't easy being green.