Back in the day - and possibly still; it is in my Ford Focus - the handbrake was engaged by a cable, abstracted from the hydraulic system. So if your brake hydraulics failed, the rear brakes could still be engaged with the handbrake lever.
They don’t lock up necessarily either: the handbrake is also good for slowing you down when you’re going too fast and notice the police behind you, without lighting up the brake lights and making it obvious.
I suppose you’re right; it’s just that when I was able to stop affording only cheap cars (Escorts, Civics, things like that) and able to start driving full-sized cars and trucks, none of them had that annoying console hand brake. Maybe it’s cheap and/or sporty versus full size cars and trucks?
This thread is a bit worrying:
What’s going on here? Is this the result of mobile phones or up-sized coffee or what? When did we stop being drivers? How can you just FORGET some part of driving? It’s like forgetting some part of, I dunno, getting dressed in the morning.
I have a standard start up procedure and a standard parking and shut down, and lock up procedure for automatic cars, and a similar set of procedures for manual cars. I always engage the handbrake and leave the car in Park or in first gear. Always. Without exception. Not doing so feels as weird as not wearing a seatbelt. Even driving onto the hoist at he mechanic’s, when he asks me to leave the car in neutral with no handbrake, feels very strange and slightly unpleasant. My brain refuses to let my hand turn the key in a manual car without a foot on the clutch and an almost subconscious jiggle of the gear stick to confirm it’s in neutral.
I do it every single time without fail, and I’ve been driving for 35 years. I suppose I must have driven off without releasing the handbrake perhaps twice in that period, both times when in an unfamiliar car. Nor have I ever been towed. I don’t think there’s any valid reason not to do it - those given in this thread read like the “but the seat belt will stop me being thrown clear of the accident” excuses; valid in only a tiny minority of cases.
Why? Dude, it’s a parking brake! That’s what it’s for!
Like someone mentioned earlier, it is the EMERGENCY brake to me and always will be. I have no idea what I am supposed to be preventing by putting it on in my driveway or the perfectly flat parking lot at work. I do know that I have accidentally driven with it just a little engaged without realizing it, people that have borrowed my vehicles haven’t taken it off at all, I have had them get stuck so badly that I felt like I was going to break my thumb trying to push the stupid button hard enough to release it, and I am certain that tow truck drivers don’t really care if it is on or off a lot of the time. The cost/benefit is skewed differently in my experience than for some of you.
Quite simply, I use it when I need it. There is no conceivable scenario that would make it worthwhile for the places I go most often. How often do automatic transmissions come out of park with the key turned off?
Another automatic transmission driver (bad knee) who ALWAYS puts on the parking/hand/emergency brake when parking – whether I’m in my parents’ 89 Taurus (floor-mounted pedal), their 2004 Buick LeSabre (pedal), my '89 Accord (hand lever), and my girlfriend’s 2005 Prius (pedal). I also turn my wheels when on an incline.
Then again, I was raised by Boy Scouts the way some people are raised by wolves …
um, if the car rolls, how can they tell which way the wheels were turned? 
If it rolls 4 inches to the curb they were turned the correct way. If it rolls into the street they were turned the wrong way. 
I’d think that would be a function of how hard the car was hit and from what angle.
That was me - and hands up, it’s just a bad habit, I know. I’m used to only me driving it, and I trust myself to have left it in neutral, so when somebody else has been in there I forget that they may not have. (And yes, I was taught to park it in neutral. Why, I’ve no idea.)
Just so you know, Tow truck operators know how to get into vehicles to release the brake. On the two occasions when I locked my keys in my car, I called (wait for it) a towing company to come unlock my door.
I alway use the parking brake on every car I ever drive = a better half that can’t seem to do the same and so forgets to release it = a) a killin, b) a divorce, c) thousands in repair bills each year.
I alway use the parking brake on every car I ever drive = frozen brakes in manny manny places during a lot of the year. (I’m too lazy to use chocks and I believe 99% of the rest of the driving world is also.)
I alway use the parking brake on every car I ever drive = I do the same in my airplane and spend manny manny thousands of dollars a year in repair bills.
I alway use the parking brake on every car I ever drive = and my neighbor will only let me borrow his car in an emergency once because after I drive it, he breaks his car ( I said breaks, snerk. ) because he never does.
There are manny dead people who flew with Air Florida and found out what happens when the drivers are absolute slaves to routine and habit instead of actual thought processes for the current conditions and expectations.
‘Always’ and ‘never’ will kill you in a heart beat.
YMMV
I think that all modern cars require clutch interlock switches that prevent this from happening.
Yeah, I’ve heard that before on these boards, but I’m yet to see one (maybe we’re a bit behind the times here), and I’ve driven several manual cars built in this decade.
I don’t think I’d like it, to be honest. I kinda like the ability to crank myself the hell out of the path of an oncoming train, or what-have-you.
It’s a US v. other parts of the world issue.
We’ve discussed in a few past threads, but of course, I can’t remember the search strings… 
US, Some Manual transmission drivers, are apparently too stupid to realize they need to push the clutch in, prior to starting a car. I’d like to bash those folks badly, as I am not one of them, though I drive a manual transmission, on all but one of my cars… and I hated the automatic from day 1.
A quick scan finds the laws regarding Canada, which seems to be in step with US laws (for the most part, there are a fwe exceptions, as described in the link). The link is from 2005.
As I look around on other links, non-US/NA certified vehicles by manufacturers such as VW, and others, may not have the interlock equipped.
Having had my car slammed into by a gal that didn’t depress the clutch, I’d say it’s a fairly good thing… though I realize that it’s just “another thing to go.” I am, however, far more likely to have a problem with the switch, rather than an event where I’ve “Stalled on the tracks, and can’t start my car, and there is a train coming.” At least from my experience so far anyway… 
You can only forget to take it off if you ignore the bright red ‘BRAKE’ light on the dash. Every modern car I’ve driven has the warning light. Are there cars that don’t?
I’m pretty sure my 66 Ford doesn’t have it, but my 87 GMC and 88 Ford sure do. So that feature has been around for 20 years.
They could, but I do not believe they do. I have never heard of them doing this, but I have heard of them mounting the car on another set of wheels as in this image I just dug up from Google. This happened to me when I went to dinner at a restaurant near where there was a Phish concert. All the local business went apeshit with towing cars they thought belonged to concertgoers instead of patrons, including mine. There were more than a dozen tow trucks running back and forth for hours. Honestly, I can’t see why they would think I wasn’t eating there. Anyway, I had the emergency brake on and they had to put the car up on wheels to tow it. If they hadn’t I would have sued the crap out of them.
My 2005 Cavalier also has a warning beeper that activates if you move the car more than about 3-4 feet with the parking brake on.
I always use it in a manual and never use it in an automatic for those reasons (the only automatics I drive these days are other people’s cars or rentals and most people don’t use their e-brake/parking brake so I leave the car as I found it.)
One more time since half of the people who dont use seem to have skipped my earlier post (3 or 4 I think)
when parking a car anywhere setting the brake is required by LAW in most if not all states.
when parking on the street you are also required by LAW to turn your wheels towards the curb (with the semi moronic execption being up hill with a curb in which case you turn away)
the reasons for this are very very simple
in park should your car be struck it will roll, park will not prevent this. from a personal experience even with a light light tap from a very small car a rather large suv will roll as much as 20 feet IN PARK.
the reason you turn the wheels away from the street is also simple, if you car is struck from either the rear or the front it will roll OUT OF TRAFFIC.
sorry its not rocket science and as a drivers ed teacher you guys who insist the parking/emergency brake is something never to be used make my job all that much harder when you start teaching your kids the same nonsense.
as for the emergency brake, yes its the parking brake as well, yes its a SEPARATE system thus should you lose your standard brakes for some reason the emergency brakes will still function
they only work on the rear brakes so expect stopping to take a hell of alot longer
hand brakes are the best emergency brakes on the market, why? because with your thumb on the button you can easily lighten up should you brake to hard and lock the tires
the foot pedal requires you to pull that stupid little hard to find lever WHILE you are trying not to crash
and dont even get me started on the push on push to release style that are out now, that is like an anti emergency brake.
