I had to retake a driving test the other year. When I was just sitting in the car and hadn’t even started it up, for some reason I had my left foot on the brake pedal. The woman saw this and I was quickly reprimanded. I don’t even use my left foot to brake. I was taught to only use your right foot. Nothing quite as unnerving as driving behind someone using both feet, watching the brake lights flicker like Christmas tree lights, and not being able to tell when I’m actually going to need to stop quickly, for real.
Sorry, but why should someone want to be able to pass the driving test by driving in the dangerous (as has been pointed out above) way of having a foot on each pedal. This is tantamount to a vision impared person asking how to pass a driving test without getting their vision tested. If someone can’t drive safely they shouldn’t be able to pass the driving test.
Sorry, but why should someone want to be able to pass the driving test by driving in the dangerous (as has been pointed out above) way of having a foot on each pedal. This is tantamount to a vision impared person asking how to pass a driving test without getting their vision tested. If someone can’t drive safely they shouldn’t be able to pass the driving test.
So to directly answer your OP. No it isn’t acceptable, and any DMV that allows people to pass doing this is not doing its job.
Holy shit Bippy, no one is trying to pass their drivers test this way, ok? I’m asking about whether or not a friends father could have taken his test this way instead of getting someone else to take the test for him. Sheesh!
And for the record, I never said anything about having a foot on each pedal (as many posters are assuming). Using both feet, but not necessarily having both feet touch both pedals at the same time.
Well, left foot braking is a frequent performance/stunt driving technique used with front-wheel drive cars to compensate for thier tendency to understeer. By using the brake to provide some resistance to the front wheels, the car transfers more weight to these drive wheels, thus increasing their grip and their steering power.
It’s sheer hell on your brakes, though.
An excellent article on this and other performance driving techniques is at ModernRacer.com.
Just because it’s not normal doesn’t mean it’s illegal. My driver’s handbook doesn’t mention it so I have to guess it’s perfectly legal as long as they are not a dangerous driver (in the few times I’ve tried using my left foot to brake I end up stopping very fast and abruptly 
).
Sorry X-ray I thought you were advocating the technique, and using the feet alternately (not at the same time) is far better than a foot on each peddle (yuck). I think it is clear by the standard of driving that you can find in any part of any country that drivers can often pass the test without actually being able to drive, or that soon after passing they stop driving propperly. I’m sure most people use their signals quite carefully when taking their test only to never use them again.
So your friend’s dad quite likely could have passed due to an inattentive driving instructor, or simply by carefully avoiding his prefered technique during the test. If he gets from A to B without endangering a few dozen other motorists he is better than some drivers who probably did get someone to stand in for them at a test. I have heard of people in Eire making a buisness of passing driving tests on behalf of other people so I expect similar buisnesses would exist anywhere where driving license test security is lax enough to allow it
When my sister took her driver’s test years ago in Kentucky, she failed for using both feet. She felt it was more comfortable, but the examiner failed her for it.
Couple of years later, I asked, and my examiner stated that it was grounds for failure. This was in Fayette County.
Good enough?
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but to add some facts to all the speculation…
In the mid 1970’s my wife passed her driving test in Maryland. In the early 1980’s she again passed, this time in the UK. Both times she used her left foot for the brake pedal, having warned the examiners in advance that she used this method.
Which manual transmission drivers would that be? I don’t understand about not bothering with the clutch, I assume you mean the likes of race drivers who know when the road speed and engine speed are such that you can change gear without depressing the clutch pedal (although it wrecks the gear box after a race)
You don’t do this in town driving do you? :dubious:
I have heard that if you are driving an automatic transmission vehicle it is actually safer to use the left foot to break rather than resting it on the floor the whole time. The reason for this was that it cut your reaction time (the time from seeing the danger to applying the brakes) by around half a second, greatly reducing the stopping distance. It is a difficult technique for most people to master however if they are used to driving a manual which is the case for most people in the U.K… The reason being that when driving a manual the left foot is used most of the time in an “all or nothing” manner i.e. not touching the pedal at all or pushing it all the way to the floor to change gear. The result of this is that if you then switch to an automatic and attempt to left foot brake you find yourself slamming all on every time you brake, which is obviously very dangerous.
I have to say I am amazed that passing an your test in an automatic allows you to drive a manual in the U.S.A. as driving a manual requires additional skills to an automatic.
Ditto on that last comment. It is not allowed in the Netherlands - if you pass your test with auto, you are only qualified for driving autos. But only about 10% of our cars are actually autos. Distances travelled here are so small that people prefer manuals. The biggest advantage of a manual, I find, is that you have a better sense of speed - you can (consciously or subconsciously) hear quite exactly what speed your car is doing from the rpm, if you know what gear you’re in. That, and the fact that it’s fun, is about the only advantage though, and I could definitely live with an auto also (I testdrove a Prius, very nice). My dad on the other hand would never ever buy an auto.
Anyway, since you are allowed to drive a manual with your auto test in the U.S., I would consider it only logical to then require people to use the right foot for both pedals, because switching to a manual could otherwise cause you to make mistakes that could be dangerous, like stalling your car because you forget to press the clutch (though that would only happen at low speeds, so the instances in which it is actually dangerous would be small).
I know this from experience, because before I got my licence, I’ve done years of computer racing with only two pedals (with manual shifting but clutchless, something which is also up and coming over here - even a small car like the C3 has an option for ferrari style shifting paddles, for instance, and the Opel Corsa has a rally style clutchless stick option), and I used left foot braking there, because that’s a great advantage in racing, as has been described, and not just for front wheel drive cars either.
You have brakes on all four wheels, and you can balance a car in a turn by applying the brakes while still accellerating, or rapid alterations that are only possible using two feet at the same time. On wet surfaces and when going into spins or losing control of your car, this can work greatly to your advantage. But of course you do need some training (virtual reality does help here … a game like GT4 with the Driving Force Pro wheel is certainly realistic enough in that respect!).
Now that I have my driver’s licence, I know for certain that what I learnt about car control in Gran Turismo (especially GT4 Prologue with the DF Pro wheel, as GT4 wasn’t out yet then) really helps me in real life. (I realise I probably sound like a commercial, but fact is fact).
When I drive on the computer, I either have my left foot resting next to the braking pedal, or hover over the braking pedal when I’m in a situation in which I might need it. I use that technique also when driving manual, by lifting my foot off the gas and hovering over the brake.
The switch from left foot braking to manual driving did take getting used to, but I got used to it during driving licence training, which was a safe place for it.
Conclusion: if you know how to do it, left foot braking is by far the superior method for driving an auto. I would recommend making an auto licence valid for auto only, and teach left foot braking properly as that’s probably safer in the long run - now people may thoughtlessly start using left foot braking without thinking about things like not resting your foot on the brake pedal. Then an additional training and test for when you want to be allowed to drive manual as well.
You can do it around town if you like. You must match engine revs to gear revs when changing gear. Race car drivers either use heel-toe braking (this is on cars that have a clutch, F1 cars and similar are essentially automatic) where you brake with your right toes and simultaneously blip the throttle with your right heel as you change down gears, this leaves your left foot to use the clutch. The reason you do this is to stop the drive wheels from locking up when you release the clutch. The other option is to not bother with the clutch and use the left foot for brakes and right foot for throttle blipping. As long as you match engine revs you do no damage to your gear box. There are plenty of manual drivers around who don’t bother with the clutch for normal driving, they are normally driving enthusiasts who get a kick out of precision driving.
Ideally you would always match revs when changing down gears on a manual but many people can’t be bothered or don’t know they should, and modern gear boxes are designed so it doesn’t really matter any way.
There is no simple answer to your OP. It’s going to vary from state to state, and from examiner to examiner. Also, since this incident with your friend’s father took place years ago, the situation might have been (probably was) different then than it is now.
I’ve tried gently blipping the throttle when changing down to go up hill or overtake (and to annoy my sister who’s learning still) but I think I’ll ignore ignoring the clutch pedal for a while 
I’ve done some unintended left foot braking on occasion. I’ve only owned manual transmission cars. Sometimes shortly after I’ve started driving a rental car, I’ll sense that the engine has reached the speed where I usually shift and my left foot automatically goes for the clutch. Since the brake pedal in auto transmission cars us often much wider than that on manuals, I’ll get a piece of it. After the first dozen miles, I’ll have aclimatized myself. Conversely, after I get home from a trip where I’ve done a lot of driving in an auto car, I may try to make the first shift without hitting the clutch.
Are you left-footers driving modern cars? All of the newer automatics I’ve driven have a small brake pedal right next to the gas so that you have to move your entire leg uncomfortably to the right up against your right leg to hit the brake with your left foot.
I have a 1975 Chrysler and it has the big wide 7" brake pedal and it’s easy to use either foot for the brake. Being carburated, I always have to start out in the morning, especially when it’s cold driving with both feet. If you take your foot off the gas, it dies.
I also drove a friend’s 1966 Chrysler and thought it was remarkable that the brake pedal was over a foot wide. I soon found out that a 7000 lb. car with no power brakes requires both feet on the brake in a sudden stop.
I drive an old car too (1987 Dodge Shadow) and need to drive two-footed when starting out on cold mornings. Even after it’s been running awhile.
I also had an old enormous Chrysler Newport for awhile. If the car stalled out while I was driving, it took both feet on the brake to stop it. And huge arm muscles to steer it. I found this out when my car stalled as I was turning left. I ended up partly on the sidewalk. :eek:
I hope I’m not getting in to this too late-----I have an old marine acquaintance who left his right leg on New Britain back in nineteen frozen stiff.
He’'s been driving “lefty” for 60+ years.
Just throws his stump on the seat and lefties it all over the place.
I have full manual controls in my Crown Vic and don’t use EITHER foot.
And who started the rumor that left foot brakers “ride the pedal”?
I drove by left foot braking for years before I finally had o go over to total manual .
In all that time I never failed to get at least 50k miles between brake jobs.
A lot of what I’ve read here is a lotta Bull!
EZ