Taxicabs [are] for Babies
Making New Urbanism Work for New Families
The very first time I (excitedly) hailed a proverbial black taxicab in London I had to tell the driver thanks but no thanks. As the hackney pulled away empty, my friend with his infant carefully tucked away in a BABYBJÖRN was apologetic, but he explained he could not enter the car without a car seat for the little one.
New urbanists know multiple modes of transit make the modern city a car-less joy—until you have kids.
We decided we would simply have to rent a car. After doing so, travelling became more complicated and less spontaneous making it harder to enjoy the urban environment. Gone were the alleys, murals, and shops we happened across unassisted by guidebooks or wikitravel. Gone were the moments we would feel part of the thrum of the city—its sounds, smells, and endless sea of new faces. Gone was the magic.
The lack of child-friendly transit options drive parents away from cities, which teaches the next generation to be dependent on cars.
Avid cyclists and bus advocates alike may live for decades without a car, but the arrival of a baby makes cycling amidst antagonistic cars and taking over-crowded transit impractical if not untenable. Different transit options complement each other; as many become impractical for them, parents find themselves cornered into acquiring a car.
New parents quickly discover that modern life, even in major cities, is nearly impossible without a car. Doctor’s appointments, day-care drop-offs & pick-ups, play dates, out-of-school activities—few of these things are close together or directly near subway entrances, bus stops, etc.
Eventually, paying for a car at the same time as paying the higher housing costs found in denser areas stops making sense. This, combined with the quality of schools frequently pushes city-dwellers to the suburbs. The fabric of cities that we have so carefully rebuilt in the last twenty years catches on this simple fact and starts to tear.
We need better solutions. App-based hailing is the answer to the taxicab problem.
The car-free advocacy community needs to solve the car conundrum for parents if the car-free lifestyle is to be adopted by the culture at large. Luckily, recent innovations are opening the door to solutions.
With the dawn not only of car-sharing, but app-mediated taxicab and town car hailing, specialized cars for specialized needs—read car seats—are ideas waiting to be seized by an innovator. For a slight upcharge and perhaps slightly longer wait, parents should be able to call a taxi equipped with a high-quality car seat that is matched to their child’s weight.
The idea is simple and achievable. The first innovator to go after this market will have leg work to do on liability, licensing, and marketing. But with a smart approach to safety regulations and inducing demand, the right service catering to parents could revolutionize taxis and the fundamentals of city-living at the same time. Parents, especially new parents trying to do what is right with too little sleep and too little time, will pay for services that cater to their needs. Tourists keen to have a real city experience might pay even more.
Taxicabs are just the beginning.
New urbanism encourages communities to design life around walkable communities, but infrastructure reform for such design requires a shared vision and shared commitment at the local and state levels. Further, sustainable communities must meet the needs of all ages, not just the child-free, or else new generations will not learn how to live in the cities the old leave behind.
This simple taxicab innovation could be a first step towards keeping more parents in cities, the benefits of which would be several-fold. Parents have the incentive and natural organizing opportunities to advocate for further community reforms that would make cities more walkable and simply better. Safer cycling infrastructure, zoning regulations for kid-centered amenities, bus routes and schedules that map to school-oriented activities are all things parents could and probably would advocate.
Moreover, having more parents in cities leads to greater investment in city schools generally, the benefit of which may be too widespread to be measurable but invaluable nonetheless for building integrated, environmentally-conscious cities that will last.
