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Why do you suggest left-foot braking for drivers of automatic cars?
I assume that I am probably in a majority who drive a manual as well as an automatic car. I do not understand your oft-repeated argument that drivers of automatic cars should use their left foot to brake. Does this mean that those of us who drive manual cars should also right-foot brake? Or maybe we are a danger to other road users because we have to move our right foot 50mm to the left in order to brake? The fact that 58 runaway Toyotas in the US are down to the drivers pressing the accelerator instead of the brake is surely more a reflection on the standard of driving in the US than on which foot should be used for braking. Are you suggesting that we should all change foot for braking depending on whether we are driving an automatic or manual car?
Asked on 2 October 2010 by PK, via email
Answered by
Honest John
If your brain is so confused, then don't. In the Toyota cases the fact that the drivers pressed the accelerator instead of the brake is because they thought they were pressing the brake. This happened to a man called William Hippsley in the UK in 2009 and resulted in the death of his wife. He tried to use the Toyota cases at his trial in March, 2010 to pretend it was the car's fault.**
I'm only interested in saving lives in 'accidents' that occur when manoeuvring automatics. Then, even if your left foot conditioning results in over-braking, it won't do any harm, but you have full control of the car and can stop it before you run over your wife or child or someone else’s, a type of 'accident' that occurs around 100 times a year. I recently confirmed with the IAM that they have no problem at all with the advice to left-foot brake automatics whole manoeuvring. They just don’t trust most drivers to prefect the technique out on the open road.
**Source Daily Mail, Thursday March 11, 2010, page 35.
I'm only interested in saving lives in 'accidents' that occur when manoeuvring automatics. Then, even if your left foot conditioning results in over-braking, it won't do any harm, but you have full control of the car and can stop it before you run over your wife or child or someone else’s, a type of 'accident' that occurs around 100 times a year. I recently confirmed with the IAM that they have no problem at all with the advice to left-foot brake automatics whole manoeuvring. They just don’t trust most drivers to prefect the technique out on the open road.
**Source Daily Mail, Thursday March 11, 2010, page 35.
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