There was a third type of hand/parking/emergency brake. It used a handle that pulled out from under the dashboard, usually just to the left of the steering column (U.S.). I had a '70 Ford Maverick with one like that. I wonder which car had the last of those?
All the little Japanese trucks had them in the 80’s and 90’s. I know the Tacoma had them until the 2005 redesign. Some of them had a button-lock gizmo so you could use them the same as a handbrake, but others had the ratcheting pull-and-turn release mechanism that would have made the hill start trick pretty hard.
Question for those who don’t use the hand/parking brake on their hill starts - how do you start in a worst case scenario?
Say in a heavily laden older car on a very steep road, cars queued up behind you, waiting to turn onto a very busy road? Is it just a matter of being fast enough with your feet?
To the OP: People have been doing every style of hill start for 100 years, so I’m sure you’ll master it with a bit of practise 
My work has a 2004 Mazda truck with this type of brake, you get used to it pretty fast. If you need to time your start carefully, sometimes you can just twist it and hold it in place until your moment arrives, then let it go if you want.
Worst case scenario for me would involve the situation you’re describing except I’m starting on gravel, say, pulling out of a gas station with a gravel parking lot onto a slightly elevated main road with lots of traffic. Generally speaking it’s just a matter of being fast with your feet, but in a situation like that it’s tricky to manage without wheelspin. Last time I remember that happening, I used the handbrake. I don’t think anyone’s saying never to use the handbrake for hill starts, just that it shouldn’t be routine.
Pretty much. If you do it well, the car shouldn’t roll back more than a few inches before it starts moving forward. If I’m trying to parallel park on an exceptionally steep hill such that rolling back a few inches will cause damage, then yeah, I’ll take advantage of the handbrake. But out in the driving lanes? The car behind you is probably at least three feet back, and contact is highly unlikely.
I think that most folks who enjoy driving a manual derive satisfaction from the challenge of doing it well: smooth launches, seamless upshifts, perfect rev-matching on downshifts, and so on. For them, using a handbrake for uphill launches looks like a substitute for developing clutch/throttle management skills; for them, the idea is that if you feel you need to use a handbrake, then there is room for improving your skill, and why would you not want to improve your skill?
Folks who don’t particularly derive satisfaction from driving a manual generally don’t have an interest in honing their clutch/throttle management skills. For them, the handbrake is just one more tool in the toolbox, something that obviates the need for advanced clutch/throttle skill.
It is not my intent to disparage either group; just trying to understand/explain the difference of opinion WRT using the handbrake for hill starts.
I think lazy in this context was meant to mean “to lazy to learn how to start with out using the hand brake as a crutch” And I think this was directed at those that use this crutch all the time. It would concern me as a passenger.
I wonder if in the US you would pass your driving test if you did this. It would be seen as a lack of skill for driving a manual transmission.
I can’t understand why using a handbrake on a hill is lazy or lacking skill. It’s like criticizing cruise control. It’s there for a reason. If you were only supposed to apply it when the vehicle is parked, it wouldn’t take up precious interior real estate near the center console. It’s there so you can easily apply/release situationally, including on a hill. There’s nothing wrong with it and you’re not an unskilled driver if you use it.
Except, as many people have stated, for when it’s not there. You may at some point find yourself driving a car without a handbrake where you expect it to be, and if you can’t start up a hill without it you’re going to be in a pickle. If you’re 100% able to do all manner of hill starts without the handbrake but you prefer to use it anyway, more power to you. But if you rely on it exclusively, you ipso facto lack a skill.
Right. And the OP was even talking about “mild hills”.
I havn’t been able to find any statistics, but I would guess that a slight majority of manual transmissions are found in pick-up trucks. At least in the US. I’ve never seen a pickup truck with a handbrake.
Well, not since the '60s anyway, when they sometimes where found on the dash board.
(Bolding mine)
It’s there because all vehicles have a parking brake and manufacturers choose the type/placement based on a bunch of different factors. Precious real estate? For what, cup holders? No manufacturer would build a sedan with a bench seat these days, what with shoulder belt and airbag requirements. Who would sit there, a child, who is required by law to be in a car seat in the back almost up until they’re old enough to vote?
Take a look at this past thread about types of parking brakes, especially post 11 by Declan. Smaller vehicles (often manual transmission econoboxes) don’t have the footwell space for a pedal brake and those types of brakes add extra weight to the car. Hand-activated parking brakes definitely seem handier in smaller cars but that goes for both manuals and automatics.
Check out the center console area of a new car. All those knobs, buttons and gadgets are what the precious real estate is for. That’s part of the reason why electric parking brakes activated by push button are becoming more and more popular. The button takes up less useable space.
As far as lacking a skill, I guess if you can’t heal/toe shift you technically lack a driving skill, but it’s completely unnecessary for public road driving.
Count me as another one who never even considered using the parking brake for a manual hill start. I just didn’t even know it was a thing. I grew up on floor pedal parking brakes, with the under dash release lever that you had to lean way forward and over to reach(Jeep Waggoneer).
It was one of the rites of passage. After a couple weeks learning to drive your dad took you out to a steep gravel country road up a hill and had you stop halfway up. Then start and stop, and start and stop, etc… After 10 minutes or so you got it down well enough. The parking break wasn’t in scope.
Not a good comparison. If you need to use the handbrake to start on a hill, and there isn’t one, you’re going to wish you had that skill.
That’s great but your other post seemed to imply that the reason manual cars tend to have the parking brake on the center console is so drivers can use them for hill starts. I think what’s more likely is car designers put them there for other reasons and drivers utilized that as a crutch (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
FWIW, I only used the parking brake in very, very rare circumstances.
The only time I specifically remember using it was when I was on a very steep hill, and some prick stopped right up to my bumper. I used it then to make sure I didn’t tap him (although I wanted to double-tap him!).
The worst cases I’ve experienced, I push a little harder on the gas as I’m letting up on the brake and clutch. And yes, I will operate all three pedals at once with only 2 feet.
Worst case I can imagine? I smash back into the cars beind me.
Hehe I was trying to remember how I do it. But it’s like tying my shoes. I have no idea how I do it anymore, my feet just do it when I need them to. 
Then you’ll just roll back a few inches. I feel like I could probably start up a moderate incline and achieve 0 roll back about 95% of the time. Like I said, I only use the handbrake when someone is right on my bumper on a fairly steep hill. Even very skilled drivers will roll back or stall out once in a great while.
I borrowed a little Mazda Miata from a coworker and the clutch bite point was so much higher than I was used to, there was no way I wasn’t going to roll back a little bit on hill starts.
Of course. But we are talking about people that don’t have the skill to start on a hill without the use of the handbrake. Not just rolling back a bit. Stalling out and making traffic go around them. And that it is an important skill to have in case you end up in a car that does not have a hand brake.
And IMHO (and others too) it’s a bit lazy to not learn that skill, and always rely on the handbrake method.
I would doubt it would matter much. Is there a “manual transmission” test in the US? I’ve never seen one. Anyhow, as said above, in other countries, parking brake is required on hill starts, and you’d be failed for not doing it.
Regardless, of course it’s best to know how to do both methods in case you do find yourself on a manual without a parking brake. But as a passenger, no, it would not concern me to see parking brakes on hill starts. One of the best drivers I know uses the parking brake for all hill starts and even at stop lights because that’s just what was engrained into him in his UK driver’s education. I’d be silly to be concerned about something like this if every other aspect of his driving is normal. I personally feel safer with someone who parking brake hill starts.