Tell me where I suggested that.
I didn’t have to.
Its just another case of applying racing ideas or techniques to passenger car operation,doesn’t work just like trying to apply race care maintiance to passenger cars.
I agree with Mr. Meehan; it all depends on the driver. I’ve been a 2 footed driver for 40 years and have never had a single problem due to this method.
One should also not take it to mean that someone who uses 2 feet means they’re driving around with one foot resting on the brake pedal.
In all seriousness, just how many times in say the last month has anyone seen someone driving at speed with the brake lights illuminated?
Some years ago a gentleman here was attempting to parallel park downtown and while backing in he hit the car behind him. In a panic, he shifted into drive and hit the car in front of him. Then it was backwards into the first car struck, forward yet again, back again, followed by jumping the curb and continuing the path of destruction.
According to the cops, this guy was a one foot driver. The problem was that he was using that one foot only on the accelerator pedal and refused to release it.
Damage totals? Five wrecked cars not counting his, broken curbing, half a dozen flattened parking meters, damaged storefront, and a few psychologically scarred bystanders who were lucky enough to avoid being hit when a 2 ton Buick came over the curb.
but who has opposed left foot braking?
In the past there have been plenty of people who have said it is wrong. Maybe not in this particular thread but yes, plenty in the past. I also find it interesting about guys getting defensive about opinions or preferences but oh well, that’s life, nobody’s perfect.
I was trying to show that it can be done. I know this is an extreme example and not for the street, plus I thought I might be injecting some Fun into the topic. I don’t believe left foot braking has a place on the street, but there are worse driving techniques.
I believe that racing improves the breed and the techniques do filter down to improve passenger cars and driving, when used judiciously.
This is an interesting debate. My two cents:
When my Dad was teaching me to drive he started me with the 2 foot method since he’d been driving all automatic cars and figured, like many here, that reaction time was better using two feet. But, my driver training class in high school taught the one foot method, This was back in 1970. I went with the one foot method, which is good because over the years I’ve had a series of small manual cars and larger light trucks with automatics. I think that switching back and forth between manual and automatic transmissions is much easier and safer if you drive them the same way, that is with the left foot for the clutch only, if there is one.
I would suggest that if one is panicky, they shouldn’t drive.
I drive with both feet about 90% of the time, I only use one or the other. Maybe uncoordinated people have problems with this, but it’s like marching, not everyone can.
I’ve also known people who regularly confused their left with their right, I don’t suggest driving with them.
Then again, I can also drive with just my right foot, or just my left foot.
Every human being I know of is capable of panicking. You must be quite special or from another planet. Not only are you ambidextrous with your feet, but you have some kind of inhuman or superhuman control of your panic reflex. Maybe we should all fall down and worship you. When you subjugate the human race, remember that I was the first human to suggest worshiping you. Go easy on me.
I guess it’s OK…I’ve never done it. Once you get use to one way (driving car with a clutch) it’s difficult to switch. What I have done a few times when I was driving my wifes Accord after driving my Pathfinder…was to press the brake with my left foot trying to clutch an automatic. Luckily no one was behind me as I slammed on the brakes.
I find that people who drive with 1 foot on the gas & 1 foot on the brake often apply just enough pressure to the brake pedal to cause the brakelights to come on. It drives me nuts to be driving down a street or on a highway following a car with its brakelights on & knowing that it is not slowing down.
Secondly, it’s impossible to drive a manual shift vehicle using only 1 foot.
Yes, it’s okay to drive with 2 feet provided they both belong to you.
Driving with one of someone else’s feet is definitely not on.
"Also, using both feet doubles the chance that you will hit the wrong pedal in split-second emergency situations"
I think this would be rather hard to do since the brake pedal is much bigger than the accelerater and far to the left. Or the accelerater is far to the right.
Whitey and Oldschool, you must have figured out whom I was talking about hu?
Just to be repetitive with my earlier post,driving with two feet is not only OK but should, in my opinion, be taught in Driver Ed and encouraged for some situations. So I’d vote both.
Is it ok ?
Is it ok to - NOT - learn (correctly) how to drive, but do it anyway ? Driving along with your brake lights glowing and accelerating from a stop sign with brake lights on…is NOT ok.
Reading all of these posts returns just one verdict. LEARN TO DRIVE.
This encompasses all the potential answers to such questions.
----- LEARN to PROPERLY do the one you wish and it is perfectly ok.
It’s ok to drive with only your LEFT foot ( eg; right leg amputee ) or NO feet ( hand controls ). When learned and practiced properly, all variations and adaptations become OK.
( personaly I’m a one foot advocate. Just merely letting off the accelerator yields sufficient slowing BEFORE applying any brake pedal. )
And you, Whitey, say I am sarcastic!!! What about this? "Every human being I know of is capable of panicking. You must be quite special or from another planet. Not only are you ambidextrous with your feet, but you have some kind of inhuman or superhuman control of your panic reflex. Maybe we should all fall down and worship you. When you subjugate the human race, remember that I was the first human to suggest worshiping you. Go easy on me."
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Left foot braking is more effective and shortens reaction times , most race driver now use it ,even the ones that didn’t want to, because they couldn’t match the lap times of the ones that did. On the street it shortens stopping distances, I don’t use it because after 40 years in trucking ( Often driving 13.15. or 16 speed transmissions ) my reflexes are too firmly entrenched in right foot braking and in an emergency confusion is the last thing you want.
This topic has been on here three times that I know of. Each time we get the same clever people who essentially admit they have never seriously driven with both feet, telling those who have done it, for years in some cases, that it is a bad idea. Hahahaheeheeheehohoho. Beam me up Scotty…
Yet, here we have galaxybeing who says he was taught professionally to drive with both feet in the city for greater control. And, below the same mountain bike hits a homer when he says the brain can adapt to the different driving style. It does. It takes about two weeks, during which time you must be very careful. And, like any other part of driving, you have to set standards for your driving behavior. If you don’t two feet is not the problem.
I have clumsy feet, and have driven with both feet since I got my first automatic back in 1973. I have been told here that I have been driving badly since 1973. One gutsy chap told me if my feet are that clumsy, I should be prohibited from driving at all. In both cases, they have never driven with both feet so they imagine they know more about it than I do.
My car has been hit twice in that time period. Once, I was parked in my son’s yard and he t-boned me. The other time was in 1998 when there was a sudden stop on I-35 low in Austin. The cars ahead stopped, I stopped, the car behind me stopped, and the next car clobbered all 3 of us. I betcha he was driving with one foot.
I have driven around 250,000 miles since we retired in 1997, including much time in Mexico, including some of the worst traffic I have ever seen, in the Texcoco/La Paz area just outside Mexico City. Except for the very young, trying to drive one footed there will make most of you stop for a rest after about 20 minutes, if you can survive that long without a wreck. They merge with 4 inches to spare, not the four or five feet I would expect in Chicago, for example. You see very few older people driving manual transmissions in that traffic.
I have used taxis in Mexico City for years, but never drove in Mexico until around 5 years ago. At first that 4 inches between cars scared me, but over the years I began to realize they really do know what they are doing. As long as everyone is on the same page, all is well. If an outsider comes in, and panics when he sees what he thinks is no distance at all, there is going to be a multi-car wreck, and if anyone is hurt, he will be in jail, because that is what happens in Mexico when someone gets hurt, until the money issues are sorted out.
I actually found, to my total surprise, because I was psychologically conditioned over the years, that I had no problem at all BECAUSE I was driving with both feet, with very short reaction time.
This is one topic The Brothers amaze me with. Their argument was, well, since old bad drivers mostly drive with two feet, therefore all people who drive with two feet are bad drivers. Even little kids can understand, “just because all A is B, does not mean all B is A.”
All dogs may be animals, but not all animals are dogs.
All bad drivers may drive with both feet (not saying that is true, but for example) does not mean all people who drive with both feet are bad drivers.
There is one case where people should not drive with two feet. That is, where they must switch back and forth between manual and automatic. Your brain does need to be trained, and switching can in many cases produce a coordination problem.
This is the same problem people report when they drive on the left side in England.
As far as problems with panic stops, if you are having many panic stops, you are driving dangerously. I leave my home in North McAllen, when I am in the States, around 8 am or so. Usually the next night I am roughly 1400 miles from home by bed time, with an overnight stop. I expect to have ZERO close calls in two days of long trip driving.
When I first drove in Mexico, I had close calls a lot because the driving culture is different. Each trip the close calls became less and less. For several years, six months in Mexico may mean one close call, and it is usually a low speed event that would probably crumple a fender if I actually hit. That is too many, but the drivers here are less disciplined so it isn’t always my fault when I have a close call.
I would suggest that if one is panicky, they shouldn’t drive.
I would suggest that anyone who feels they will not panic in an emergency situation has never been in such a situation.
Left foot braking decreases reaction time. Race car drivers use it all the time. Some people whose reaction times have slowed like to use this method. Two things: it can be done without riding the brakes. But are you doing it without riding the brakes? Everyone who argues for left foot braking as a daily driving asset affirms that don’t ever ride the brake. I haven’t seen anybody mention that the routinely have a second person verify. Second, if you think your reaction times have slowed to the point that you need to change your driving habits, maybe its time to stop driving.
As a mechanic, I could routinely tell who drove with both feet. First, they would usually complain that the last set of brakes didn’t last very long. Second, the brake pedal wears differently. We would stand at the door and watch them leave, brake lights glowing as they drove up the hill. And when you confront them with this information they will always deny that they ride the brakes. On average this would happen at least once every week. And it was definitely worse in the community with more seniors.
As for accidents, my managers wife got pinned the wall of a grocery store after an elderly lady stepped on the wrong pedal. The car ground this poor ladies legs into the wall until somebody reached in and turned off the key. Double amputation was required.
If you feel like you have to drive with both feet fine. But every six months I would have somebody follow you for a 30 mile drive. See if they can tell that you are driving with both feet. I bet you they can.