Yeah I wouldn’t either. You need an old clunker of a car to practice on until you can do it consistantly. It’s straight forward to change up gears without using the clutch though, not that I do it regularly, but I have tried it a few times.
The car I was referring to was a '66 Newport. And that reminds me…the power steering pump was missing from it, so it didn’t have power steering, stalled or not. Part of the reason the steering wheels were a lot bigger in the old days.
Anyway, the point of the first post I was trying to make was that if the OP’s father took his driving test back in the 60s or earlier, I doubt they’d have failed him for using his left foot because it was more common to do so. Also, automatic was still a relatively new thing, even in the 60s and I don’t think they’d standardized any rules for which foot to use for which.
It seems to me that the whole left foot thing should eventually phase out as carmakers do more to make it difficult by making the brake pedal smaller and moving things further to the right.
On the other hand, my grandpa had a 68 Toronado with power brakes. The slightest touch would throw you onto the floor if you weren’t wearing your seabelt. Must confess I did put poor old Gramps there at least once!
My mother had a 66 Chrysler, the brake pedal in it was no bigger than than any other automatic car, it was about 7 inches long. I have driven a lot of cars in my lifetime and I have never seen a brake pedal anywhere near a foot wide. My neighbor has a 67 Newport sitting in front of his house, I’ll measure the pedal in it later in the morning.
I started driving race cars at 7 years old, first quarter midgets and later shifter karts and 3/4 sprint cars. The only way to drive these is to left foot brake and thats what I did when I started driving cars. During driver’s ed, we were forced to right foot brake, the driving simulators had a divider that prevented the left foot from even touching the brake pedal. During the on the road training, it drove the driving instructor crazy when he would catch me left foot braking but he did admit I was good at it. From driving race cars and quite a variety of vehicles over the years, both manual and automatics, I can use either foot to brake. It depends on the layout of the pedal and what is easier for me.
I just looked up replacement pedal pads…8 1/4" long was all I could find. I must’ve overestimated, unless the cars that were never equipped with power brakes used a larger pedal.
Still 8 1/4" is pretty wide for a brake pedal.
Why did the zombie thread fail his driving test?
He kept leaving his foot on the clutch pedal.
I Just called my local police department and ask them the questions they said it is not illegal to drive with both feet and that is not illegal to take a driving test with two feet
Same for Illinois. I got my license at 16, but didn’t learn to drive a stick shift for another 10 years.
So how does he reach the pedals?
(yes, I realize the thread is 12 years old… I just can’t believe no one made the joke yet)
If OP is still interested in this 16-year-old thread (and I see OP is still active here – are you watching?), I’ll add something that I don’t think anyone has mentioned yet. (But I admit, I only read a part of this thread and quickly skimmed the rest.)
At lot of posts are discussing what’s legal vs. what isn’t, as if that’s all the examiners are looking for. And several posts have mentioned that it’s up to the examiner’s whims what he’ll allow or fail you for.
Nobody has explicitly mentioned (that I noticed) that the examiner is also looking at, simply, whether you know how to drive a car. Preferably safely. He’s looking at how well you can do all the maneuvers that a driver needs to know how to do. There’s no “legal” or “illegal” about a lot of this. The examiner is looking at your skill on various details of operating the car – backing; offset backing (a.k.a. parallel parking); merging; lane changing; three-point turns; and so forth. He’s looking at a lot of things that aren’t particularly specified in law. How many feet you use on pedals probably falls into this category.
Your DMV may have a policy manual for examiners to follow, and that might include a lot more than simply judging what’s legal or not.
Most states (I know Virginia does) permit people with disabilities to use assistive technology such as hand levers, so it makes it hard to believe that double-foot driving would be unlawful or cause for failure unless there is a provisio in the law saying that variances on standard driving technique are only allowed if you have a formal disability.
In a practical sense, it would seem foolish to bake specific driving techniques into the motor vehicle code as they would have to keep updating them as technology changed. Imagine if you could get dinged for failing to crank start your car despite the fact that cars haven’t come with hand cranks for a long time.
I don’t know about the rest of you folks, but on long drives I switch legs pretty often. I don’t use one leg for each pedal in an automatic, I just fold one leg back and use the other for both pedals. I’ve never given it much thought, and I’m rather astonished that an examiner would even look to see which leg the driver is using.
Left-foot braking is a pretty common technique in sim racing. Lets you hold a little throttle on to lock the differential while braking, lets you run less stable setups to let the car turn better.
I was going to say something similar to what Senegoid said; the legality of which feet you use to operate the pedals isn’t the only factor going into what’s allowed during a driving test. Obviously, it’s a pretty good bet that an examiner can and will fail you for doing something illegal. But just because a technique or action IS legal doesn’t mean you can’t be flunked for it anyway.
There are some things that an examiner will objectively assess you on (like actual skills and maneuvers you complete), and a bunch more that are subjective; a big chunk of the safety assessment is subjective. Do you wait long enough to assess traffic before proceeding through intersections, are you checking the mirrors often enough, how fast are you reacting to movements made by other cars around you, etc. Although there will be a general policy in place for what they look for, each examiner will do things a bit differently and some can be very picky. They might flunk you for not maintaining a 10&2 hand position often enough, or maybe they’ll flunk you if (in their opinion) your foot technique is unsafe or too awkward.
I don’t think you’d have much if any ability to contest a picky driving examiner’s opinion… you’d probably be stuck with their decision about whether or not 2-footed driving is acceptable. We’re not talking murder trial-level importance here; it’s just a driving test. Flunk it for what you think is a silly reason? Your best bet would be to just pay the $50 and take it again NOT doing the silly thing next time.
I can speak for Germany, where most people drive manual-shift cars, bur automatic cars are sufficiently common not to be regarded as odd, and some people prefer them. German licences are not limited to a particular type of transmission, so you can learn on either and then drive (or at least are allowed to drive) the other.
The police are not in the business of administering driving tests. I doubt that they would know what’s legal or not.
The police (or applicable sub-set law enforcement group responsible for enforcing motor vehicle legislation) is very knowledgeable about what’s legal to do in a car and on the streets… probably more so than any other group out there, including driving instructors. Whether that legal knowledge is relevant to whether you’re allowed to do a certain thing during a driving test without penalty or not is discussed a couple posts up.
Definitely doesn’t make a difference in Illinois. I suppose it’s possible, but my guess/assumption is that in all the states in the US, a non-commercial license does not make a distinction between automatic and manual transmissions. Or I’ve never heard of it. I drive a stick, but I’ve never been tested for one. And, as far as the US is concerned, a “regular car” would be an automatic. If I had to guess, it’s probably 90%+ auto transmission to >10% manual. It’s almost impossible to rent a manual, in my experience.
Back in my day, sonny, my mom had a Fiat 500, back when it was a tiny little, around-town, two cylinder car. We could shift gears in that car up or down by just timing the lifting of your foot off the gas with the movement of the gearshift. We just did it for fun, but we got real good at it and after a couple of times grinding the gears, we could do it smooth as silk.
Then who does? Every place I’ve ever been, the actual test is administered by a police officer–both written and driving. Granted, that’s my town a few surrounding towns where I’ve talked to people about it.