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Does anyone else use both feet to drive?

chavey

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Okay, so not really an offroad question, but I've found that I've started to drive with both feet - left foot on the brake and right on the gas.  I started this a couple months ago to see if I could and now it's become almost natural.  Yes I lift my foot off the gas when hitting the brake, and vice versa.  I find that it gives me better response to curves (back on the gas faster after turning), helps me to burn off a little speed without completely hitting the brakes, etc.  I find I'm using my left foot to brake when only slowing, but still use my right foot to fully stop (such at a red light).

Anyone else do this?  (Or am I just weird??)
 
Never tried this but I a little leery about doing it guess I need some open roads. I know the nascar drivers do it works for them.
 
Driving with both feet is not a good thing to do. I have watched people that do drive with both feet and they inadvertently end up resting their left foot on the brake pedal which does apply the brake and causes undo wear.

Have you even been behind a car on the road that has their brake lights on most of the time? This is usually a 2 footed driver that has rested their foot on the brake pedal.

Just IMHO.  :rolleyes:
 
I personally think it is a very bad habit to start. Skip does this and has for many years and now what I notice him doing more and more and he himself does not know he is doing it is using the brake pedal as a foot rest seriously.
Now you know why he does not drive the Pearl. This is something that annoys me to no end. His trucks get new brakes three times more then anything I drive.
 
My mother would drive with two feet, and would constantly be working the brake and gas against each other and at the same time. It always made me seasick.  :9:

I learned on manual trannys where you simply can't use the brake with your left foot. Now with autos, while my left foot is bored, it seems unnatural to brake with it.

Then there's my motorhome: the steering column goes through the floor between my feet, and both brake and gas are on the right side beyond the steering column. There's no way I could get my left foot over to the brake. Same with my garden tractor, forward, reverse, and brake pedals are all on the right side; the only thing on the left is the differential lock pedal (wish I had that one in the Av!)

Seems to me that it's best to use it the way it was intended, and then you don't run into a problem when the pedal arrangement prevents doing what you've then become accustomed to.  (I think you would have a harder time than most adjusting to the motorhome.)
 
I've been a left foot braker since my racing days in the late 70's. It's just something you get into. You just have to be careful not to rest your foot on the brake.

While the technique on the streets is more a matter of habit, in aggressive driving conditions you often will be on both pedals at the same time... or switching back and forth. i.e. use the brake to set the nose, the throttle to control the tail.
 
Used to do it occasionally in the older cars, usually in the winter when the choke did not set right.  Did try it a few times in the AV, usually when I am bored in traffic.
 
For on road driving - no.  But for off road driving it the terrain requires it - then yes.  Went to a Land Rover off road driving school a few years back and they advised it for certain sections of the course, like when you are climbing over rocks or logs, you need to go extremely slow and use both the gas and brakes at the same time.
 
HaulinAV said:
For on road driving - no.  But for off road driving it the terrain requires it - then yes.  Went to a Land Rover off road driving school a few years back and they advised it for certain sections of the course, like when you are climbing over rocks or logs, you need to go extremely slow and use both the gas and brakes at the same time.

I agree that should be the only time  (y)
 
I have used both feet ever since we started desert racing, it feels akward to use my right foot to brake anymore. Even in a stick car I still use both left foot clutch and heel toe the brake and gas pedal.
 
This guy drives with 2 feet!!!

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Wife uses both feet and drives me crazy. I drove behind her once and the brake light was on as she accelerated from the stop sign. Not a good habit to start IMO.
 
I've only done it once when I was trying to break hard enough as to not hit the first in front of me  :laugh:  Then I used both feet.  Other than that . . . weird man.    :laugh:
 
chAVey said:
Anyone else do this?  (Or am I just weird??)


Chris, I've known you're weird going on a couple of years now! But I guess in this case I'm a little weird too. I learned drive this way for racing and occasionally I find myself doing it too.
 
I only use both feet if its needed.  Such as starting off on hills, or when driving up on the lift at the garage.  My dad does that and it annoying cuz hes not gentle about it.  Gives everyone whiplash.  He even uses both feet  to start his car, even though its fuel injected.  Stuck in the old days of the carbureator
 
I still drive with both feet.
It is something that was taught for my <classified>, when chaffeuring excutives.
Some offensive/defensive move require use of two feet. I know a couple times at LEO events with brake simulator setup.
They always have me do the brake test 2 or three time. Since my two feet kept beating the set establish time for braking.
 
I'm going to say WEIRD. If you are trained in high performance driving and a certain technique requires the use of both feet, than that is one thing.  But just everyday driving with both feet (unless you are one of the Flinstones as KevMack pointed out) only complicates matters and opens you up to problems that you wont face when driving normally (namely riding the brake).

Bandt0913 mentioned that he was used to driving a manual transmission and now drives an automatic with both feet out of habit. What? ??? Even with a manual your left foot is only used to operate the clutch, you still operate the gas and brake with your right foot.  I don't see how that could cause confusion.  I own vehicles with both types of transmissions and have never once pressed the brake with my left foot (on either type) out of habit from pushing a clutch.

Just my $.02, but in the end its your truck so do what works best for you.
 
00kidd said:
I own vehicles with both types of transmissions and have never once pressed the brake with my left foot (on either type) out of habit from pushing a clutch.

I did, ONCE. :E:

I was a relatively new driver, and was used to driving my little car with the small four banger engine, manual tranny, and manual brakes. Then one day I borrowed my father's Cutlass with the 350 V8, auto tranny, and power brakes. Pulled out of the driveway and gave the gas the normal tweak I do to get to the corner, and nearly snapped my head back! Oops!. So, coming up on the stop sign a whole lot faster than expected, and just a little panicked, I backed off the gas and reflexively hit the clutch in preparation to stop. Only problem was that the big wide brake pedal on his car extended to the same area where the little clutch pedal was on my car. So I ended up clutching with the power brake, pushing it down to the floor. Dang near broke my nose on the steering wheel. :eek:

After that fiasco (all within a couple hundred feet) I had the unfamiliar pedal arrangement down pat. Didn't do that again, I was cured! >:D

-- SS
 
I think it largely depends on how you learned, all my life I have used my left on brake and right on gas.  Still do, except I drive a big rig and use my left for clutch (Start and stopping, float the rest of the time) and right for gas or brake.  I don't even think about the switch, it is pretty much automatic... done it all my life, never once got confused, coming up a million miles accident free on the road with the big rig, and the only accident in my pickup or personal vehicle was a side swipe... I changed lanes without looking when I was 17 years old.... :laugh:....I think the big reason I started out young riding motocross bikes before I drove cars and them old bikes had the foot brake on the left, so it was just natural to use the left in the car, just felt better.  I remember when I finally got a Harley, an Electra glide when I was 21, the foot brake was on the right, I had a hell of time, kept locking up the back tire, had no feel for braking with the right foot.  Not a problem on the big rig, you just mash the brake with the right foot as hard as you can and hope you don't run out air or space before you stop..... :eek:
 
This explains allot of what I see on the road and probably why people "accidently" park inside buildings

Read your drivers hand book and attend drivers training/ed, they advise against it.
 
I have been doing it for years and never have had a problem.  I don't drag my brakes because I keep my left foot on the floor until I need to apply the brakes.  I think the people who drive into buildings do it because they are confused or because of other reasons.  I'm not certain, but I think you can apply the brakes and stop a vehicle even if you are on the the gas at the same time.  I haven't tried it, but I think it came up several years ago with the "unintended acceleration" problems attributed to Audis. 
 
i find it hard to keep my left foot from resting on the brake because its kinda tiring to sit there with your foot hovering above the brake but if i could find a way to do it i would
 
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