Using the parking brakes

I am soon taking delivery of my first Prius-(can't wait-will be about 6-8 weeks)

As a future driver to the prius and automatic transmission (rather than manual gear-stick shift), I am used to pulling up to lights and putting on my hand brake.

I see that the Prius has a few extra brakes than I am used to. What brakes do I use for good safe driving practice.

Thanks

Same thing you do in any automatic car. Use only the foot brake unless parking. Per above, the car in fact has no more brakes than you're used to!

Thanks for the replies.

I am used to putting on the hand brake when I need to stop for more than say 20 seconds. The reason being that if a car 'rear ends' you, if your foot slips off the foot brake, you will not shoot forward.

If you were stopped at lights, would you use the 'hand brake' i.e. he one that you set with your foot, or again would you just use the normal foot brake. It just seems a bit insecure.

interesting.
Thanks for that.

Over a minute, eh? I'm jealous of your stoplights. The one closest to me takes >3 minutes to make a complete cycle except at very low traffic. Then again, being a transplant to California, it's my opinion that basically all the lights in my region are pretty terrible - in addition to being slow, they don't even trust us to be able to make a left turn without a green arrow on most streets. Plus the sensors for most of them are all placed in the last 15 feet before the intersection. I'm used to having two sensors; one at the intersection, and one 50 or 100 feet back so that you don't have to stop at the intersection if the light is ready to change.

And back on topic... I don't know if this is the case for the Prius, but most parking brakes that I'm aware of only apply brakes in the rear. What you gain by applying the parking brake in the extraordinarily rare chance that you'll get rear-ended you might lose by only having braking on two wheels instead of four. Not to mention, parking brakes aren't terribly strong; it can be quite easy to drive away with them still engaged.

Once in a blue moon I put my automatics into park if I'm bored but I've never, ever used the parking or hand brake on an auto except when parking it (even then basically I never bother). Just keep foot on brake.

This is absolutely true. Unless being rear-ended by somebody on a bicycle the parking or hand brake will do virtually nothing for you.

Yea if someone hits you hard from behind having the parking brake on will do nothing to help you.

Thanks for that.
My very first experience in an automatic was in Florida visiting 'Discovery Cove' to swim with the dolphins.

I sat at the right turn (just going into the theme park) behind a large SUV using my foot on the brake. In my excitement, I took my foot off the brake (as you would with a stick shift) but hadn't put my hand brake on. As I was talking to my wife and not looking where I was going, the car naturally moved forward and 'rear ended' the SUV.

There was no damage apart from my pride. Thats one of the reasons for my oroiginal question, as if I had used my hand brake, It was an incident that could have been avoided.

Yeah, the "creeping" on a Prius is both pointless (they added it to make it feel "normal" ) and annoying.

If i am sat in a queue or waiting for someone going into a shop or whatever, i put the car in "P". This is like taking it out of gear, with the added advantage that it can't roll on it's own. when i'm ready to go, footbrake and move back to "D" (feels like putting it in 6th gear instead of first, but never mind!) and off you go.

I only use then hand brake (the foot operated parking brake) when parking.

This is one of the problems with standards, whether official or defacto. The QWERTY keyboard is an excellent example. It's really a stupid layout, but good luck changing it now.

Our dogged devotion to English measurements is another example. No rational person could argue that S.I. isn't better, but we never seem to be willing to change. Likewise much of the Prius user interface was done to make the car feel familiar.

Tom

Familiar to Americans, though. I've never owned a car before with the stupid creeping feature, so why make it do it in the european model?

Equally annoying is the regen on the accelerator pedal, though of course all my cars have had engine drag with the pedal released so i am "used" to that one...

Yeah, exactly right, never owned an auto because they're extremely unpopular and more expensive over here. My wife did own a Smart though, and that did not creep, guess we lucked out on that one if they screwed the programming stateside...

If you are so inattentive that you cannot control your vehicle at a stop light except by applying the parking brake or putting it in PARK, then so be it. As to the rest of the human race, I do not think we need to engage in such childish behaviour.

I have driven cars and trucks for 50 years.
When I was younger, I liked 4-speed manuals, especially in my pick-up trucks. As I have grown older, I have found that an auto tranny is easier for me to handle, now that the "wounds of youth" are coming back in the form of a bad back.

When I drove manual transmissions, I would shift into NEUTRAL at a long light. However, I never applied the parking brake at a light, NEVER!. Neither have I ever seen anyone I know apply the parking brake at a light. That just sounds like a good way to piss off the guy behind you when the light changes, or to drive off with the brake on.

So, while my comment may seem a little caustic (I have a low tolerance for foolishness), do not tell me that applying the parking brake at a light is "typical of a manual driver."