I’ve noticed that a lot of people who drive autos with automatic transmissions use their left foot to brake. Not only that, some of them drive with their left foot on the brake. This doesn’t seem like a very wise practice to me. Let’s say you panic stop. Your weight is thrown forward, causing your right foot to press more firmly on the gas pedal.
I know that at least 98% of you are better than average drivers ;), so what’re the opinions of the SDMB many? Is this a good idea?
My new car is the first with an automatic that I’ve owned in over 30 years (Don’t like it). So, I don’t have a lot of experience with them.
Peace,
mangeorge
I only know two things;
I know what I need to know
And
I know what I want to know
Mangeorge, 2000
I had a friend who used to keep her left foot on the brake when she drove. That is, until one day she got a little confused and when trying to park instead slammed through the front of a bank. To make things worse, it wasn’t even her car she was driving. Well, she didn’t drive for a while afterwards, and when she finally did, she kept her right foot safely away from the brake.
I was always told never to be a two-footed driver (one on the gas and one on the brake). For one thing, it wears out the brake linings. For another, the driver behind you gets confused when your brake lights periodically light up while you’re not actually braking - and he/she may well miss the time that you are braking.
With an automatic transmission, braking is faster if you use your left foot on the brake since you don’t have to shift feet. This is for aggressive driving, when you anticipate braking. If you are just out crusing, with your left foot on the floor, using the left foot is not faster.
Drive the way YOU want to. With the automatic, you can brake with either foot [in most cars]. If you are used to braking with your right foot, it will take a long time to get used to using your left foot. As you point out, it is dangerous to mess up.
In my younger days, I had a 63 Volkswagon Squareback which was prone to exciting problems. At one time, the engine idle was too low, so the car would die if you didn’t keep your foot on the gas. Which meant that to break, you’d have to put the car in neutral, take your left foot off the clutch and use it to press the brake. Problem is, in normal usage, you really clobber the clutch, and are very gentle on the break (and gas). So when you use the left foot on the brake, you naturally stomp it and come to a screeching halt. Takes a bit of getting used to.
Sounds like a really bad idea for street driving. I have heard of left foot braking being used by race car drivers, although, it seems to me that the clutch pedal would get in the way.
Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t the brake paddle in automatic transmission cars closer to your right foot than to your left foot? Wouldn’t it feel awkward to brake with your left foot then?
I was always told to use only the right foot when driving an automatic. In case you get into a tricky situation where you may have to take your foot off the gas in anticipation of braking, at least the car will begin to slow down. Also, there’s the above-mentioned brake wear problems (overheated brake linings lose their effectiveness) and having drivers behind honking horns at you for riding your brakes.
A similar thing applies to riding the clutch pedal in a stick-shift car. You’ll burn up the clutch lining (VERY expensive) a lot faster.
Those of you with standard transmissions, if you read your owner’s manual you will probably see a line or two that says, roughly, “don’t drive with your hand resting on the stick shift, even lightly, as this will contribute to premature wear on the components of your transmission.”
As for driving with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake, this has always struck me as incompetent. If you do this, do not screw up.
In the Len Deighton book “Bomber” (one of the first novels written woth the aid of a computer), a fictional account of a one night bombing run into Nazi Germany, there is a subplot about a loudmouthed, opinionated Nazi soldier who works on an anti-aircraft gun. The young soldier he is with questions a shortcut the older wiseguy uses on his gun loading procedure. The older guy laughs and says that the people who wrote the manual didn’t know what they were doing and he has improved on procedures and found a better way.
Then, during the heat of battle when a thousand planes are going over, his new impoved procedure results in the amputation of his hand in the breech of the gun.
Using two feet to drive may seem like a bright idea but it isn’t, something you will find out not during everyday driving but when an incident occurs that requires split second reflexive decision making.
I know, I know, “all human progress is the result of someone trying something new.”
I think the reason you should (and none of this relativist mamby-pamby “drive how you want to drive” drivel–it’s a two-thousand pound chunk of metal for God’s sake) drive an automatic only with the right foot is so that when you hop in a real, i.e. stick shift, car, you don’t have to completely change how you drive. Automatics eliminate the one pedal that you would operate with your left foot in a manual, therefore eliminate the use of that foot when driving one.
“It’s a wicked world in all meridians–I’ll die a pagan.” Moby-Dick
I took Drivers’ Ed in 1965, when I was a high-school sophomore. The teacher told us that if we use the left foot on the brake during the driving test, the examiner will see to it that we are only licensed to drive automatic transmission cars. (This was in California.)
billehunt–
Every air-cooled VolkswagEn (including several Type 3s) I’ve ever owned breifly experienced similar trouble. In the vast majority of cases it is caused by a negligent previous owner (“it’s a VolkswagEn, so why bother maintaining it?”) and is easily corrected. You’re right, in those trying circumstances, it is necessary to use the left foot on the brake, long enough to get you home where you can fix the idle.
I’m with Grady and Dougie. When I had behind-the-wheel driver’s ed back in the Pleistocene era, we were not allowed to use our left foot for braking, because, we were told, “someday you’ll want to learn to drive a stick shift, and your left foot will be needed for the clutch, and if you’re used to braking with it, you’ll be totally screwed up and never be able to learn to drive a stick properly.”
Well, they were right. Five years later, I learned to drive a stick with a minimum of fuss, whereas I knew people who were (and still are) totally screwed up when it comes to driving a stick, because they’re used to braking with their left foot (feet?)
Like I said, it is NOT a problem when you always drive the same way, whichever way it is you drive. My left foot is on the floor until i brake with it. Never wore out brakes. I will tap the brakes occasionally to signal some idiot behind going 80 mph to pass me.
I don’t know, sunbear, maybe so. In a panic stop situation, though, inertia would tend to make you press harder on the gas with your right foot. Unless you put both feet on the brake.
Peace,
mangeorge