Braking with the 'right' foot

Sounds like the Prius has cured you of a very bad habit.

 

Why braking with Left is a bad habit?
It should be just a matter of preference....

 

Because you can hit the brake and accelerator at the same time. What is your tendency when you brace for an accident? If you have a foot on each pedal, I'll bet you try to 'floor' them both.

 

Unless you're a racing driver, you should never brake with your left foot. It's way too easy to 'ride' the brakes at all times, harming your braking capability when you do need it (because the brakes overheat), and causing excess brake pad wear. In a conventional car, anyway. In the Prius presumably pressing both pedals at once doesn't actually do anything harmful, but I suppose the car must have to decide whether to believe the accelerator or brake input.

In manual cars it's common for the clutch to burn out because the driver rides the clutch pedal. You don't normally get drivers riding the brake pedal on a three-pedal manual.

Racing drivers do it because the extra time to shift the foot from one pedal to the other - and to do so accurately for every corner - can cost them enough lap-time to lose several places, not just one. It relies on the car having a so-called clutchless manual or semi-automatic transmission (in fact the clutch is simply servo-activated).

 

The left foot should only be used if you have a clutch, never should it be used for braking! As the above poster pointed out, it also can cause an accident from the rear. When you have your foot covering the brake all the time, there is a good chance your brake lights will be on, and that can cause the driver behind you to not know when you are actually stopping and after a while they start to ignore your brake lights to the point if you need to stop fast, you will most likely get hit hard from behind. I am a professional driver, drove semis for a long time, and have seen this happen multiple times, it is a bad habit and one that should be dropped. Hopefully now that you discovered this, you wont do it anymore.

 

I always use the left foot for the brake ever since I started mending cars. It is a necessity if the torque converter is faulty with too low a stall speed and for a host of other reasons to do with faulty engines and if done correctly without riding the pedal it is more sensible.

Anything that stops habits developing is a good thing, try a model T sometime

It is amazing what you can get used to, I once had a small dumper and the steering box was knackered, I found one to fit from an old Humber and fitted it. The outcome was that the steering wheel worked the wrong way round, clockwise to turn left and anticlockwise to turn right. It was abysmal for maybe 2 minutes for anyone but amazingly after just a few minutes anyone coudl drive it.

 

i n t e r e s t i n g . . . . .

For more than 60 years, I have been braking with my left foot except when driving a 'stick shift.' No problems... just a matter of preference, not some 'rule' as some folks imply.

 

I frequently see cars ahead of me with the brake lights going on occasionally with out reason, sometimes even when it is obvious the car is accelerating. Obviously left foot braking. I have a friend who considers it normal to replace their worn out brakes in the 20,000 mile range. Same with tires. Left foot braking.

 

I agree with those who say that braking with the left foot is a bad idea. Not an absolute. Just in general. It allows you to apply brake and accelerator at the same time, and encourages riding the brake, which wears out brake pads, reduces FE, and turns on your brake lights. Thus it is more difficult to learn to drive well if you brake with the left.

 

Left foot braking is great when racing but for normal driving right is right.
In racing tenths of a second count, on the road you should cover the brake pedal when you suspect you will need to brake to reduce reaction times. brace yourself against the dead pedal with your left foot. Race drivers use right foot braking when they need to brake hard, left foot is to warm and prepare the brakes or brief speed reductions normally.

 

I agree with those saying riding the brake with left-foot is a bad habit, but this doesn't make the left-foot braking an absolute No-No....

In fact, braking with the Left-foot is one thing and riding on the brake is the other. People have the tendency to ride on the brake with left-foot braking is because they didn't learn/practice this technique correctly! (Or simply don't know what they're doing.)

Like driving car with clutch....no one will dispute that using the left-foot on the clutch is bad (It's the only option), but riding on the clutch is an absolute bad habit.....Same can be applied to the left-foot braking technique, if you do/learn it just so do/learn it correctly.....brake only and don't ride on the brake!

 

I use left foot braking when reversing in tight confines. This is the only time.

 

Don't know if it's true with everyone, but I used to date a guy who used his left foot to brake. It was always a very jerky ride!

 

It's all about 'smooth' driving skill to master, left-foot braking or not.
People brake with right-foot can also have very jerky ride (ever sit with a student driver?)

I know a guy who drove Manual car for 30 years, and it's jerky whenever he shifts....he said this is the way manual car is like. Yeah right....he should learn how to feather the clutch and throttle for smoother shifts.

 

I agree with those who say left-foot braking is a bad idea and dangerous. My personal view is that it's more dangerous than the danger posed to blind people by our quiet Priuses. If a law gets passed someday to "bell the hybrid", then excessive riding of the brakes is more deserving of legislation to make illegal.

With the tendency to apply the stop and go pedals simultaneously, the driver behind you may have no idea when you need to stop your car quickly. I've seen this countless times over the years, and I get nervous to the point that I'll keep a huge distance between myself and that driver, or I'll let other drivers get between us.

Of course we cannot categorically say that all people who brake with their left feet are idiots and dangerous drivers. I'm sure there are some who are well aware of what their feet are doing and consciously push only one pedal at a time. But I feel comfortable saying that some left-foot-brakers who ride their brakes excessively are idiots and dangerous drivers.

 

While it's not always the case, I think that frequently left brakers just don't know how to drive properly. I know a left-foot braker who is a very good driver. But I think he's the exception. The fact that your date braked left probably meant he didn't know how to drive, thus the jerky ride.

Race car drivers have very specific and valid reasons for braking left. None of those reasons apply to normal city driving.

 

Reaction time is one very good reason for left foot braking. If the car is properly designed then the brake will always override the throttle. In an emergency one downwards movement of one limb is always quicker than one up, one left and one down and will always be so.

 

A driver who knows how to drive properly will anticipate danger and put their right foot over the brake pedal in preparation for an urgent stop. At this point only 1 downward movement is required.

A driver who does not know how to drive will have to move his foot off of the accelerator onto the brake, or he/she might compensate by leaving their left foot over the brake pedal.

By having both feet off the floor it is impossible to properly brace yourself for an emergency manoeuvre. It is a reflex when you brake hard to also push yourself back in your seat with your left leg on the dead pedal, otherwise known as left foot rest or brace pedal.

 

Like with most things, if done correctly, there isn't a problem. In the case of left-foot braking, you'll actually have an advantage as you can brake more quickly than a traditional right-foot brake user.

Having said that, I brake with my right foot. It's the way I learned, and I'm not converting at this point.

... Brad