This poll is for drivers of cars with automatic gears and two-pedal operation.
So, which foot do you use to apply the brakes?
- Right foot
- Left foot
0 voters
I normally use the right foot for braking.
However in stop & go traffic, close quarters maneuvering into parking spaces, etc., I use left-footed braking. When using left-footed braking, both feet are actively up on the pedals. The left foot is not resting off to the side as it would be for normal driving.
Many Americans don’t know how to drive a manual transmission. I suspect Canadians are similar. Unlike Europeans / UK folks. Your poll didn’t ask, but I think it might have been interesting to have the left foot / right foot answers broken down by “I can drive a manual” vs “I can’t drive a manual”.
In my case I can drive a manual, and did so as my daily driver for years. But not recently.
I see that my left-foot braking puts me very much in a minority. I don’t really have much of an explanation or justification for it except that it somehow became an acquired habit. I suppose one good thing about it is that as @LSLGuy note above, there are cases where you want both feet on the pedals, and my habit provides consistency – left foot is always the brake foot. It also consistently allows me to place my left foot loosely on the brake pedal when I know or suspect that there may be a stop coming up, like in congested traffic where stops are sometimes sudden.
On the question of manual transmissions, yes, I can drive a manual, and owned two such cars, but both were a long time ago. Years ago my brother had a funny story about a friend who had never driven an automatic transmission and got one as a rental. You wouldn’t think anyone would have a problem with an automatic, but this is where habit kicks in. Approaching a stop light, the left foot – the clutch foot – instinctively went into action. With the obnoxiously wide brake pedals that some automatics had at the time, his clutch foot hit the brake. This caused the car to start a screeching deceleration. Instinct kicks in again – this is a sign of something Very Bad. And what do you do when some unknown Very Bad thing is happening? You hit the brake. With the right foot. So now the poor sap had both feet on the brake pedal, which didn’t help matters at all! 
One of my cars is a manual, and I’ve always had one manual car, so if I ever tried to break with my left foot, I’d have the same problem as your brother – left foot is always either pedal up or pedal to the floor, never anything in between. So, if I tried to hit the brakes with it, I would come screeching to a halt.
You can tell when you’re driving behind a two-footed driver – their brake lights stay on as they’re speeding up. I weep for their brake pads.
Right foot . . . but when you’ve got bench seats and a sleepy (and cute) passenger that wants to use your thigh as a pillow you learn how to break with your left foot real quick!
This was driving me absolutely nuts the other day as the guy in front of me had his brake lights just constantly fluttering in a normal driving situation (occasional slow down but not stop-and-go). And the lengths of the brake lights were variable, so I couldn’t really tell if he was slowing down or not. Only when we obviously were speeding up did I figure out what was going on.
I’d amend that slightly …
You can tell when you’re driving behind an incompetent two-footed driver – their brake lights stay on as they’re speeding up. I weep for their brake pads.
I am a right-footed brake operator whether I’m driving manual or on the rare occasions I’m out of the UK and have to drive an automatic.
Maybe. I’d be surprised if most left-foot-brakers didn’t do this. My right foot is right there, either on the gas or close to it, or on the brakes. What does a left-foot driver do with their left foot when not braking? Resting all the way to the left? Seems like a recipe for disaster.
In fairness to my bro, he was the one telling the story – he wasn’t in the story himself! 
Meh, they’re doing it wrong. As a technocrat with respect for all things mechanical and electronic, I know whether the left foot resting just about at the brake pedal is actually depressing it or not, and also how much play there is in the pedal before the brakes actually engage. As one of the dreaded two-footed types, my brakes have nevertheless always had fine longevity. Your anecdote only proves that there are lots of incompetent drivers.
I posted mine before I saw yours.
I’d not be surprised to find that most left-footed brakers are incompetent at it. Most drivers are incompetent at most aspects of driving it seems.
Speaking for myself alone:
When I’m driving right-footed braking, my left foot rests on the non-pedal footrest thingy at the far left of the footwell. And the right foot moves back & forth applying pressure to throttle or brake as needed.
When I’m driving left-footed braking, which again is reserved for special situations such as when minimum reaction time is important, or there’s a transition from throttle holding the car on a hill to brakes holding the car on a hill, etc., the left foot is positioned centered on the brake pedal but hovering just above it. Meanwhile the right foot is doing the usual throttle stuff. One or the other foot is pressing on one or the other pedal alternately. With occasional brief overlap where braking is coming in just as throttle is coming out or vice versa.
This is something we definitely agree on. ETA, just realized that might look like a swipe at you! Definitely not meant to be, there are all kinds of terrible drivers, both left- and right-braking.
Right foot, both when I drove a standard and now with an automatic.
^ Dead peddle.
Right foot only braking. I’ve owned a bunch of manual cars. Not currently though.
Righty for me, left is clutch only, both by training and habit.
Interestingly, many lift trucks(forklift usually) have a brake pedal (right foot) and a brake/clutch pedal(left foot). I sometimes use the brake/clutch while driving forklifts at work.
This is different than a car though as not only are you controlling the movement of the truck but also the speed of raising or lowering of the lift at the same time.
I used to drive a manual for decades. Switched to an automatic and the first time it felt like the engine was lugging or about to sputter my clutch foot instincts kicked in and I jammed my left foot down on the brake hard. About gave myself whiplash and almost got rear ended in the middle of an intersection.
Right foot for every transmission. I had no idea there were a lot of left foot brakers out there, except on the rare occasion when I’ve seen someone’s brake lights lit while going uphill.
Come to think of it, why aren’t the pedals reversed in places like the UK? That would be interesting, and there is no way in hell I’d drive there using a right foot clutch pedal and left foot accelerator.
I drove cars with manual transmissions for many years. Like many people, I’m half afraid that if I used my left foot to brake, I’d hit it too hard. Thus I keep my left foot firmly to the side.
The only time I drive an automatic transmission car is when we rent one. All our wheels, including the F-250 I use to haul the horse trailer, are manual. We haven’t owned an auto-shift for at least 25 years.
My left foot is so conditioned to press firmly and to the floor (in normal driving, not anything that requires clutch feathering) that I’d be an absolute menace using it for the brake.
Brake with Right foot - primarily because it requires removing that foot from the accelerator pedal.
Theres no risk of trying to brake and pressing the accelerator. I think this was taught in Drivers Ed.