I've read quite a few posts that lead me to think that alot of automatic drivers out there use their right foot for the gas and the left foot for the brake. I have just started to teach my son to drive (he gets his learners in the spring) and right now I am in the explaining phase, he sits in the front passenger seat and watches what I do while I explain what I'm doing and why. He is very interested in learning to drive my manual MINI so we talk alot about that. But while reading here on the forum I've seen many posts that sound like the driver is using both feet when driving an automatic. I may be old fashioned, but I was taught that using both feet in an auto is a huge NO-NO. As I recall the reason was in the event you had to switch between the two, you may forget and hit the brake and the gas at the same time in an auto, which would be bad !
Just curious to see if the way I was taught is no longer "the norm" or what.
Regardless, my son will learn that the left foot is for the clutch only since the easiest way to teach is by example, at least for me.
Annette

 

It probably ISN'T proper form, but when I drive my Impala SS I use my left foot for the brake.

Thankfully, my MCS and B4C Camaro have 6 speed manuals...

Rawhyde

 

I've got a 04 JCW S with a 6 speed & I use both feet at track events left foot braking to set up corners plus to keep RPM up on the power coming out of corners & when I think about it, I'll heel & toe it some

 

My left foot is so used to a clutch that if I ever tried to hit a brake with it, I'd fly through the windshield! I know because I've done it. Well, I haven't flown through a windshield (knocks on head).

mb

 

My hubby learned to drive using right foot for gas and left for brake on automatics, as well as learning how to drive a manual transmission. He also drives barefoot! It was literally years before I even noticed his odd left-right driving style in automatic trannies! When I finally DID notice, I freaked! But to him, it is normal.

When I drive an automatic now, I have to remind myself that the brake is NOT the clutch!

 

How many out there actually drive automatics?

 

I drive an Automatic MC. Driving with two feet with an automatic isn't that horrible in a way. Two feet driving is used in Law Enforcement reason being that the Officer has a quicker reaction time. I drive with two feet sometimes but not often. It depends on what I'm doing and where I'm at. I use two feet alot on major highways incase of some idiot not paying attention.

 

I did in both my Camaros.

 

I drive an automatic CVT (never mastered a manual-maybe one of these days). I drive with one foot (right only).

My mother uses both feet and ends up using the brake and the gas at the same time. Does not seem like a good idea. She is a very nervous driver. I would avoid it, but I am no expert.

I feel like if she was in a "panic moment" and had to slam on the brakes, she might hit both?????? No expert here by any means.....

 

I'm bad, I use my right foot for the brake and gas. Autos and manuals. Left foot is clutch only .. That way you no get confused

 

me too!

 

I use the "normal" way now. I used to when I started driving in my family's Exploder, use both feet. But I soon realized my timing wasn't all that good and I was like peeling out at every stoplight. It's kinda funny every now and then when I make an emergency stop in an automatic I slam my left foot to the ground next to my right foot which is on the brake. Guess that just comes with being used to a stick though...

Mikey

 

I drive an auto S and rarely use both feet. Just seems dangerous to me. However, if I'm stopped at a light for a while I might hold down the brake with my left foot.

 

Bad? I think it's the right way to be (since I'm that way too).

 

well i guess it's the right way then :P

 

Exactly? When I grew up my father and mother said to only use the right foot. For some reason, my mother doesn't actually do that in practice-she tends to use both............:impatient

 

I never consider using the left foot.....I like to keep it planted and never even move my right heel, just rotate. Guess I'm a lazy-footed driver.

 

I was taught that it is TERRIBLE and the WORST thing you can do if you drive with two feet.... I see no problem with it... as long as you can motor/drive safely.....

(when i got my manual i called my dad and told him i was driving with two feet )

 

i sometimes use both feet while preparing for a fast turn to down shift
while braking. brake with left, blip with right. but usually just do the
cheater style heel and toe these days. much more accustomed to that
since im fluent with MT cars.

 

When i drive my wife's automatic Jetta i find myself using both feet... mailny just cause I'm used to driving a stick. No problem doing that I guess. If you hit both at the same time you were probably trying to stop anyway... and the brakes gonna win!

 

I was taught to never drive an automatic using both feet. At a long stop I might put my left foot on the brake for a little while, but that's it. That is "normal" as far as I know.

 

I want to commend you on teaching your son to drive manual. Too many kids out there today will never even have the opportunity to do so. I don't have any kids of my own, but work with a slew of teenagers on my bicycle team. We often carpool places, and I have offered to teach manual to all of them old enough to have drivers licenses. Most of them pick up pretty quickly on it, and would do just fine if they had their own manual car to use, in fact two of them do. My prize pupil is a 17 year old who had been driving for about a year. His first lesson was in my M3 and he only stalled it a couple of times, his 3rd lesson in my MINI had no stalls and 50 miles of highway/urban driving with no mistakes. A couple of weeks after that, he got to drive the M3 again, and he was so smooth, he said it was the first time he really felt comfortable giving it the gas. I'm not trying to be down on auto drivers, it's just so much more fun to drive a car like a MINI with manual. As far as the original question, I was taught to drive auto with one foot only. I think I can spot the two footed drivers in traffic, they're the ones with the flickering brake lights.

 

I used to be a police officer and an EMT. As such, I have been through several emergency vehicle operations courses. In my first one, the instructor was nice enough to tell us that if he saw us L foot brake he would "nail our shoe to the floorboard" to break us of that habit. The reason was that in an emergency situation, it is too easy to get confused and press the accelerator instead of the brake.

I must say that I have seen accidents where that has actually happened and made minor accidents much more serious.

 

Well thanks for the kudos, but I'm pretty sure it's a genetic thing with him His grandfather has a ranch in Florida and this is one of the vehicles my son get's to drive while on the ranch. Needless to say he loves it!


Funnily enough, the flickering brake light phenomenon was what sparked this conversation with my son. We were going up a fairly steep, curvy hill the other day and Jack (my son) could not understand how the car in front of us was accelerating up the hill AND had the brake lights going on and off!

Annette

 

I'd always heard that professional racecar drivers would do one on the gas and one on the brake for purposes of reaction time.

I'd bet that 99.9% of regular people who do it, only do it because they aren't very good at driving and don't know better. It would be way too easy to brake while giving the car gas that way, so if you don't consider yourself a professional, I wouldn't suggest it.

Closest I've come to doing that is in my very first car ever, where I had to operate the clutch with my left foot, operate the brake with the left half of my right foot and mash the gas a little with the right half of my right foot or else it would stall.