I thought my mother was the only one in the world who did this, but this thread by Crafter_Man seems to indicate there are others. Is this more common than I thought? Are there other two footers out there who drive with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake?
I admit that when driving my plow truck, I’ll drive two footed. But this is just in my own drive, I never leave my poperty.
I will also sometimes drive sitting in the middle of the bench seat to get a better view. Depends on the push.
I guess its all the back and forth back and forth. It takes about 45 minutes to do my drive.
I push push push snow off the edge with quite a bit of power on the engine, then I have to stop, reverse and do it again.
I drive a manual as my normal vehicle, I would never drive an automatic on the road two footed.
When I first started learning to drive my automatic instinct was to do that but my dad said no way when he was teaching me. One foot. Otherwise I would tend to ride the brake, brake too fast or hard, and generally have less control because I would have two feet to worry about intstead of one. I haven’t heard of anyone driving with two feet, although I admit, I don’t usually look at the driver’s feet when I’m a passenger.
I’m two-footed on the rare occassions that I drive an automatic (both my current vehicles are manual). I’ve heard the “you’ll ride the brakes / have less control / etc.” arguments, but IMHO it doesn’t follow—being able to drive a manual implies more ability to control one’s feet, not less. In any case, whatever I’m driving, my left foot stays primly on the floor till needed.
(While I’m at it, I may as well confess that I prefer to back into parking places. Both practices have been savaged in previous threads, so I might as well take two steps on the road to pariahdom at the same time.)
I was taught to drive two-footed by 2 certified driving instructors. The instructors’ reasoning was that you could brake faster in case of emergency if you had a foot that was dedicated to the brake. This appears to have been a very small school of thought, since I’ve never met anyone else who learned this way or still drives this way.
It made it harder for me to learn to drive a car with a manual transmission. After owning 2 manual cars, I started driving one-footed in automatics and have been driving that way ever since (15+ years). (For the record, riding the brake was never an issue when I drove this way.)
GT
I put my left foot on the brake once when I was fourteen and my dad was teaching me to drive. Once my ears stopped ringing from the slap upside my head, I realized I probably shouldn’t do that. 
Still a one-footer to this day.
Jammer
I drive both manual and auto transmissions on a regular basis. With the auto, I’ll sometimes use one foot and sometimes two.
Two-footing an auto tranny is apparently pretty rare; I’ve had passengers comment on it. I use two feet particularly in close traffic since I can get on the brake faster that way & I still tend to tailgate more than I ought. It’s also useful in slippery conditions where you can take the slack out of the torque converter before moving; gives better, more clutch-like control on breakaway.
And no, I’m not such a klutz as to ride the brakes in cruise. In fact, I often cruise with my left foot on the floor, but when it’s time to slow down, I take the right foot off the throttle, move the left foot onto the brake pedal and apply the brakes left-footed.
I also fly planes, which have two pedals each with three separate but related functions used in different phases of flight for different things. Different jobs for different feet in different situations; it’s not that tough people.
Not in the sense that you’re asking - Years of driving long distances without cruise control have taught me to drive equally well with both my right and left foot. So, while I drive one-footed, sometimes that one foot is my left.
Except when I’m, um, suggesting that some one back off my bumper. Sometimes I’ll push the brake down slightly with my left foot just to get the brake lights to light up. It usually has the desired effect.
People who do that annoy me and I couldn’t tell you why for the life of me - probably because they piss my dad off and he passed that on to me when I was still quite small.
As a youngster, I had many crappy cars. One problem I had several times was where the car would die if you didn’t keep your foot barely on the gas. I became proficient at driving with two feet, with the left foot controlling not only the clutch and brake, but both simultaneously. The big problem is that where you stomp the clutch (relatively), you have to be gentle on the brake.
I can still do it, but rarely have need to.
One foot only. I learned to drive on manuals but I’ve been driving an automatic for about 13 years now.
To those who have implied that they drive manual and then drive automatics two-footed because of it - why? I know it’s been a long time for me but my right foot worked gas and brake and the left worked the clutch, switching to an automatic didn’t make me want to drive two-footed it only made me step my clutch foot to the empty clutchless floor a lot.
Heh, you know it’s’ funny. I drove a manual for many years but on the few occasions that I would drive an automatic. My initial reaction was to mash down on the brake with my left foot as I was starting the car. Pretty much my brain was trying to tell me it was a clutch and not a brake. (For those who don’t know. before you can start a manual car, the clutch has to be in.)
But as far as driving an automatic with two feet? Sorry guys but there are not enough :rolleyes: in the world for this. 
I’ve been driving cars with automatic transmissions with both feet since I was about fifteen. Stick shifts are a different story, but I can’t remember the last time I drove a stick—better than 20 years, I’m sure.
When off roading, and one tire loses traction, you can apply brake with one foot, while giving gas with the other in order to get traction back to the wheel that won’t spin. The reason for this is the power will go to the tire with less resistance (IE. the one in the air or with no traction) by applying brake it applies resistance to both tires making the differential engage power to both wheels. Very useful if you don’t have locking differentials. (Locking differentials allow power to go to both wheels equally.)
Or worse. Most automatics have a wider brake pedal than manuals. Occasionally, I’d go to hit the brake & the clutch, but end up hitting the brake with both feet. Hope your seatbelt works! :eek:
Two-footer.
In some situations = one foot
Parking, traffic, about to pull onto busy road = two feet.
I switch up alot.
Not true. As long as you start a car in neutral then you don’t need to depress the clutch.
In Britain we’re taught (almost exclusively in manuals) that the left foot is for the clutch and the right is for the brake and the accelerator.
I’ve only ever driven an automatic a handful of times but I was always stamping my foot on the imaginary clutch, sometimes hitting the brake as the thing was so damned wide, which was fun 
Many (most?) newer cars with stick shifts have an interlock that requires you depress the clutch to start.
I had 98 Toyota 4 Runner that had a switch you could press in order to bypass the interlock. Starting in gear can be useful with offroad vehicles. Not that I ever went offroad but I remember being curious about the button.
Agreed. I learned on an automatic too. Dad didn’t hit me, but during lessons I’d be tooling along and he’d just yell “STOP!!! STOP!!!” out of the blue… and then see which foot I used to slam on the brake. It was an effective lesson, in that 30 years later I still remember it.
It was useful, too, because I spent much of adulthood driving a stick.
A related hijack: I was late for school one day, and so Dad drove me. We eventually caught up to the back of the bus I had missed, which was being driven by the driver’s ed instructor that day. After Dad watched the bus clip tree limbs and hit curbs (including ones on the other side of the road during a left turn, Dad told me there was no chance I was taking driver’s ed from that clown.
Thanks, Dad.
Maybe this is a US cars v’s European cars thing.
In Britain we do not have to depress the clutch to start a car.
Is your gear stick beside you, (i.e. not on the dash) as I’m sure I’ve seen American cars with their manual shift on the dash like some automatics have.
Could be that’s the answer.