It is possible I will get some unwanted comments from this but, no... you do NOT need a car seat for a taxi. Of course, it is the LAW that the children have one... it is also the obvious safer option, but they will allow the kids to ride without one. We took a taxi one morning to DL as our hotel shuttle bus did not operate that early. It was less than a mile to DL. I saw no difference in safety between that and standing up in the isle of our hotel shuttle bus (quite lawful, by the way) which we did when there were no seats available.