Who Gives a Shit: Should Car Services Be Required To Provide Car Seats for Kids?

The Twitter exchange that sparked this conversation.

I don't have children of my own, and I don't particularly care for yours.  In a perfect world, you and your sticky little kids would just stay home all the time, so that the rest of us can go out and have a civilized meal in peace. On the other hand, I know that scenario is not realistic.  And I don't really expect you to keep your child locked in a cage in the basement, like they do in Austria.  Because that'd just be creepy.

So, when you need to take your ankle-biters out for a spin, if you don't have a car, you're most likely going to use a car-service, right?  The only problem is that car services, taxis and buses are exempt from the New York law requiring child safety seats for children under 8 years of age. Not only are car services not required to provide you with a child safety seat, you yourself aren't even required to strap your kid into a child seat when you're in a cab or livery car.  So, if you're looking for an opportunity to be a really horrible parent, you now have another way to endanger the life of a small child.  Congratulations, Mom!

Some car services (Eastern, for one) will provide a car seat upon request.  But considering that you might need a different kind of seat depending on the size of your rugrat, do you want to leave it up to the car service to handle this for you?  Why not just bring your own? Would it be a huge pain to carry it around all day?

So the question remains: Should car services be required to have car seats?