not only do i left foot brake, i brake with the right HAND too! when on my bike.
with the hyper awareness that improves survival rates on bikes, one cannot deny there DEFINITELY IS AN ADVANTAGE in being able to hit the brakes simultaneously with throttle lift. (if not sooner!)
Most newer vehicles have a “dead pedal” area to rest one’s left foot. On well-designed floors, this surface is the same elevation as the brake (and clutch) pedal. In automatic transmission vehicles, moving the left foot from this spot to the brake is faster and easier than lifting off the accelerator and clearing the brake pedal’s right edge with enough height to avoid entanglement.
But I agree that driving with the left foot poised above the brake pedal is a demonstration of poor driving technique. It discourages smooth driving by eliminating coasting; the driver is either accelerating or braking, making life difficult for those following. Also, even the slightest touch of the brake pedal illuminates the stop lamps, as other posters have mentioned. But the switch(es) on the brake pedal assembly do many other things as well. The moment you touch the brake on a modern automatic transmission vehicle, you are telling the computer that you are intending to make a change to the vechile’s speed. The computer unlocks the transmission 1.) to provide some engine braking and 2.) to prepare to quickly downshift or smoothly add power in the existing gear. If you touched the brake pedal accidently, you’ve just wasted gas, increased emissions, and made extra wear on your transmission, particularly when, moments later, you press on the accelerator, which sends ANOTHER set of commands to the transmission. Twenty years ago, you could feel the torque converter “clunk” and “unclunk” every time you did this, but the new transmissions are much smoother. The detrimental effects of poor pedal technique, however, remain.
Do you guys notice how older drivers confuse the pedals all the time, and end up in the newspaper after driving into a building? How do they make such a mistake? You guessed it; for decades, they thought it was clever to use their left foot to brake, and it eventually bit them in the ass. See you all in the paper.
what makes you ASSUME said crashers were L-foot brakers?
i submit they were/are FAR MORE LIKELY to be R-foot brakers, for the following reasons:
L-footers have their L-foot virtually PROGRAMMED to react AUTOMATICALLY and ONLY when there is a need to brake. R-footers on the other hand, must constantly make decisions (and occasional MISTAKES) about where the foot is gonna go.
consider the contortion necessary for the L foot to swing past the R foot to hit the gas pedal. it would take some fancy footwork indeed, to this. even more unlikely with elderly drivers.
not only are making an invalid assumption, your logic is assbackwards!
Quite a few years ago there was a fuss about “unintended acceleration”, usually with automatic transmission Audis. Eventually, common sense prevailed. It became understood that inept drivers, unfamiliar with the car, were hitting the accelerator pedal instead of the brake. I doubt they were using their left feet. The solution was an interlock that prevents you from shifting an automatic into reverse unless you have your foot on the brake.
Are there any statistics? Have any studies been done?
My so-far-unproved conjecture is that many unintended accelerations, often leading to tragic accidents, have involved left-foot brakers. In a panic situation, the instinct is to go for the brake pedal and mash it. If one is accustomed to braking with the left foot, the right foot will remain in the vicinity of the accelerator, if not actually on it, with the concomitant danger of pressing down on that pedal, whether or not the other foot is hitting the brake. Right-footed brakers will have removed their foot from the accelerator and moved it to the brake pedal, thus removing the danger of any additional acceleration.
That’s what I think. Now, about those studies…
Nonsense.
This topic of braking with the left foot seems to be one of those topics which brings out the totalitarian side of many people.
You assume you know better than I do, what works for me. As I have said, I have large feet. If I brake with my right foot, I am going to have a lot of wrecks. To say this is bad driving makes no sense.
Wow, there are quite some militant opinions here. Yikes. Here’s my $.02. I grew up racing which meant I was a left foot braker. My first car burned a quart of oil a week like clockwork and had an auto transmission. I continued the left foot brake on it because that’s how I kept it running! One foot on the brake, one on the gas to keep the RPMs around 800 and the car from stalling out. I switched back when I got my first manual transmission. But I can switch back and forth depending on conditions.
I often left foot brake when backing a trailer or other tight maneuvers when I need quick reaction time.
One thing I noticed is that some people are speculating about safety and accident causes and converting those assumptions into “fact.” That is not correct. Unless there is data to prove your point, you are just rendering an theory, not fact.
Until an actual study is done, I do not think there is a difference in safety between left and right foot brake actuation. Old people mix up the pedals because they are often on a gazillion meds from different doctors. If I was on all those meds, I’d probably be a bit out of it too.
Agree…these are all good Technical reasons in favor of left footed braking (esp. backing up a trailor) that are worth while. Reasons for not and using the same foot for two pedals (insane unless you have only one foot) is spiritual.
Let me add, that brake/accelerator control in unison is essential for tractor work. So important is it that the hydraulic drive was developed to unify the tranny, accelerator and braking in one operation. The car will eventually IMHO be controled that way. Hell, hybrids do now. Get with the program. The motor is just as good a brakind device as a brake; better at times, because it recovers energy.
I was encouraged to use left footed braking while training to be a cop, safely chasing people who never learned to "covet"thy brake.
ColdCar…you have it nailed. Also right footed brakers are conservatives, left foot brakers are liberals… two footed brakers are independents.
Left foot braking is only for people who can only drive an automatic transmission. That would be, people who really do not know how to drive an automobile.
I have been braking with my left foot since automatics cane out and I don’t think I ride the brakes. I think it is safer and makes it easer to drive up to a point and stop right where you want to. Or you could drive up a few inches and stop with your right foot and then repeat the excercise until you get where you want to stop.
I’ve driven only manuals for over 40 years; never owned an automatic. Whenever I rent a car, it’s an automatic, and mostly then I left brake, other than in potential tight situationsl like heavy traffic when reflexes gained from many years of R foot braking will be quicker. By the way, before all the ARs get active, I’ve also had enough older cars that toe-heeling was the only way to keep going, and also nice for those really fast change-down corners, or the old cars that had no synchro on the higher gears. So, yes, I have got plenty of experience. It took only a few tries to get the feel of L foot braking, by the way. Probably take longer if you were a brake masher, those drivers who continue to drive all the way up to the light then pound the brake to stop.
But my real point is this. If Mr Martian came down and saw an automatic car’s foot well, and saw two pedals then looked at humans and saw two feet, I think its conclusion would be obvious. But that would be because it didn’t know that all early cars had three pedals, so one foot had to be used for two pedals. He also wouldn’t know that third pedal was for a clutch, which was usually depressed several times while slowing down, and the accelerator not used at all during this time. So which foot would be best applied to the brake? Certainly not the one being used for the clutch, while the other foot dangles idly in space. As cars moved towards auto boxes, the old habit of using the R foot for the brake stayed in place - early driving lessons taught manual driving, as it was easy to convert to automatic; nowadays most learn on autos, but the teaching hasn’t changed. It’s habit. And, as we can read from this string, people will defend their habit without regard to reason or logic. Seems they run to being rude, as well.
Pushing both pedals is better than just pressing the wrong one, which happens all the time - ever seen one of those news stories where someone drives through a storefront because they got confused and hit the wrong pedal? I brake with either foot, whichever one is closer to the brake, and I’ve noticed that in panic situations BOTH feet tend to go for the brake. Definitely better.
Left-foot braking eliminates coasting? How pray tell does that happen? Is the human body physiologically incapable of lifting one foot without automatically lowering the other? My left-foot braking has no effect on the amount of coasting I do, except in emergency stops, which is one time when coasting is undeniabley undesirable. I have on the other hand (or foot) ridden with plenty of people who seem to think their foot always has to be pressing one pedal or the other, but that’s not at all related to which foot they brake with, and in fact I’m sure almost all of them were right-foot brakers.
I’m a left-footed braker who has no problem driving a manual transmission. It takes only one exception to disprove a rule, so I just disproved yours.
Thats the stupidest thinh I have ever heard!
Thats the stupidest thinh I have ever heard!
manual trannys do make one more aware of the fact that driving takes a bit of thinking. there are no left handed brakers in the real driving world of stick shifts, better mpg and spacial awareness.
Left foot graking is actually illegal in many states. It actually takes your brain to procces the comments from leeting off the gas the gas with the left foot and then applying the brakes with the left then using the right foot for both. That’s one of the things I remenber from Drivers Ed 33 years ago.
Check with your State DMV and see if what you are doing is legal.