I drive with both feet.

I'm SICK of being treated like an abomination against nature because of it.

After reading various articles about the subject, I generally see the discussion on the topic run some thing like this:

















...etc.


So basically, I'm hearing the two footed driving SUPPOSEDLY wears out the power train, the breaks, "is confusing", and in some cases "potentially illegal." (though, I can't imagine why... )

So now I'm going to sit here and list ALL the rebuttals to this stupid, stupid, argument that "two footed driving is dangerous."

Point 1: "You'll wear out the breaks."
BULL, and might I add; "sh*t." True. If you are the type of moron that likes to keep your foot on the break pedal all the time, then yeah, I might see this as a valid argument. However, from what I have read, Most people who drive like this (like myself) keep their left foot NEXT to the break and at rest until needed. I would also imagine that if you are the type of moron that doesn't take your foot off the gas when you want to stop this might be an issue as well, however, from what I can see, most two footers simply hold their foot off the gas pedal slightly until it's time to go again. For long lights/long stops? WE RETRACT OUR FOOT TOWARD THE SEAT, STUPID. There. No more foot near the gas pedal and no danger of "accidentally hitting it." Or even better, we rest our right foot on the break as well! (O'mgosh!)

Point 2: "You'll wear out the transmission."
In an automatic car, the transmission is not a gearbox like in a manual. In a manual transmission, there are several gears that mesh on to several on the drive shaft. For reverse, the entire assembly "switches" to another blind drive shaft that by meshing with the main drive shaft at a different point using a separate "idler gear", causes the car to go backwards, with out having to change the rotational direction of the car's engine. This setup is actuated by the clutch, which is simply one metal plate attached to the engine that through contact with a similar one on the transmission causing the transmission to spin when friction between the two is applied. To prevent "lock up" when shifting, you press the clutch pedal, which removed pressure from the clutch plates, and in turn removes rotational torque from the shifting equation. This allows one to select a gear, by moving sliding "gear lockers" in to place between the desired gear and the drive shaft. to ensure that the gear in question will spin at the proper rate of speed, a cone shaped attachment to the drive gear gradually meshes with the gear locker to induce the proper RPM. Bizzarely, while the car is moving, and the clutch is engaged, it is not the engine that spins the wheels, rather, it's the forward momentum of the car that keeps the engine in rotation. The rotation of the engine causes the combustion to take place and thus feed power to make the wheels spin. It's a feed back loop. The up shot is that as long as there is fuel in the car, and the gearing is such that the engines power can over come load, you will go foward. (or reverse, as the case may be.) The DOWN side is that if you can stop the wheels, the engine will die. (This raises an obvious issue that I'll get into next)

Automatic transmissions are different. They don't use a clutch, so power is never DIRECTLY sent to the transmission. Instead, it uses what is called a "torque converter." this little device is simply a flat-ish canister that the crankshaft goes into on one side and the transmissions main shaft comes out of on the other. It works on an absurdly simple principle. Inside, the crankshaft is attached to what is known as the "solar gear." Around this "solar gear" are 2-4 "planetary gears", and surrounding this whole mess is an "orbital sprocket." Some times there may be another set (or 2) of planetary gears (punctuated by more orbital sprockets), and then a final "orbital gear run," which basically looks like a normal gear, except that it is turned inside out. This final gear run is attached to the transmission's drive shaft. When the motor is in neutral all the gears (except the final orbital gear run) are allowed to move freely. when the car is in park, the opposite is true. This movement or non movement is based on little rounded pins that fit in slots in sequential gears. Now, these pins can either be manually placed (as in when the car is in park) or they can be free floating (as when the car is in drive) When you place the car in drive, and hit the accelerator, centrifugal force caused the pins to slowly move outward, eventually "locking" the gear, and causing the solar gear to be able to directly rotate the final gear run at a particular speed. This rotation turns only one gear pair in the actual transmission, but because the gear ratio was already "figured out" back in the converter, essentially the only thing you have to change is weather or not it's a forward or reverse gear. The genius of this system is that which pins deploy at which RPM is selected based on the fact that these pins are attached to springs. When the centrifugal forces are strong enough to overcome the torsional resistance of the springs, the pins pop into place and lock the gears up so that they turn their orbital sprocket in unison, and in effect making the solar gear "bigger." A bigger drive gear means a higher gear ratio, and higher gear ratio means a faster speed. The upshot of this is that if you stop the wheels, the centrifugal forces on the pins reduce, the springs retract them, and the gears begin to spin freely again, ergo, no engine stalling.

But this also means (O' Bright One) that constantly riding the break or applying breaking instantaneously from a cruising speed, will do very little to harm the transmission, and if the person in question is not riding the break at all then there IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.

Point 3: "You will never learn to be able to drive a Manual"
Sadly, this one does carry some weight. To effectively drive a manual transmission car, you must be able to actuate the break and clutch simultaneously, as bringing the car to a full stop would kill the engine if the clutch is not pressed. That's not to say one could devise a few tricks to get around this, but not with out proper timing and some quick shifting. Mechanically speaking, however, the theoretical solution would be to set up the break pedal such that it always causes the clutch to be depressed when breaking, but not the other way around, but it's a complicated solution and there are times when you have to COMPLETELY press the clutch pedal, and only partially press the break. Really though, it's not a big deal. First of all, the break pedal in standard transmissions tend to be an inch or two closer to the gas pedal as to make room for the clutch. With this being true, it's easier to hit the break in the "proper" way. (right foot)
Besides, pressing the clutch pedal removes all torque going to the wheels, and if there is no power, then the car will begin to slow down, which is really the point of breaking. Using both feet, for that job would be like me using both feet to hit the break all the time. Awkward at first yes, but I could get used to it. Besides, one would think that using my left foot to break would get it the habit of being used instead of just sitting there, so when it finally came time for me to learn how to drive a stick shift, I'd be more prepared.

Point 4: "You'll ride the break and wear them out."
As I said earlier, you'd be absolutely right. However, I don't do that, nor do most two footed drivers. I keep my left foot in the exact same place as a one footed driver, except that when it comes time to break I move it on to the break pedal. When I'm done breaking, I let my ankle go limp --and since my left leg wants to naturally fall off to the left-- my foot slips off the break, and falls to the floor back in it's original position. Now the flip side of this is to assume I would never take my foot off the gas during this maneuver. This is simply untrue. Usually, my foot has been off the pedal for some time before I break, or if it is still on the gas, my left foot has yet to commence it's breaking. The rule is: "if the left goes down the right comes up." I've done this so much to ask me to change to the "proper way" would be like asking me to change to walking by hopping along on one foot.*

Point 5: "In a panic stop you'll get confused and you might hit both!"
Oh. Em. Gee. To call this a load of bullsh*t would be a compliment. No, this is full blown HORSESHIT. And a big steaming pile of it to boot. What make this God-awful rationale even worse is that it's the line DRIVING INSTRUCTORS use. Let me say to all you driving instructors out there once more just we're clear:


HORSE. sh*t.

Do you honestly think that I would forget, even in the deepest panic, that I have A LEFT FOOT?

"OMG! I'M GONNA CRASH!!! *instant response=break*

...

OMG! WHAT DO I USE TO BREAK WITH!? "

Some how, I don't think so. I'd break the same way I'd always do, the way that is instinctive, and as natural to me as breathing. Which just so happens to be with my left foot.

And if you think that I would be prone to leaning on the gas at the same time, somehow I would imagine, that heaven forbid I have to stop suddenly to avoid an accident, my right foot would be right there on the break with my left; assisting in the attempt to jam the break pedal through the floor pan.

Point 6: "The left does not has as fine a motor control as that of the right, so you might break too hard."
This is what people think is the nail in the coffin for this argument most of the time. Well, here's something to think about: most people are "right bodied" this means that for the majority of us, our right side is slightly more "dominant" then our left. It means our "good side" --the one we think looks best and most represents us-- is our right side. It also means that our right side is more dexterous; We tend to write, eat, wash, and hell even wipe our ass with our right hand. It means that when we start walking we usually start our right leg first, and when we kick a ball we use our right leg to kick it the hardest. But if our right side is so dominant, how can people catch a baseball in their left hand, how come people can produce the intricate chord schemes on the guitar with their left hand, and how come people in ancient times could hold a 50 lb. shield with their left hand? Because they practiced. And eventually they got used to it. The same goes for left foot breaking. If you do it enough, you develop the necessary sensitivity. I have driven this way for 7 YEARS. That's hundreds of thousands of hours behind the wheel. And all double footing it. I have never been in a major accident, nor have I worn out any major motor/powertrain components on a vehicle that weren't all ready failing due to age or lack of proper maintenance. Simply put, while it may feel weird to you, and you may think it must feel weird for me IT DOESN'T. So don't try and tell me that "one footed is better," because, believe it or not, after breaking with my left foot so long MY RIGHT foot no longer has the sensitivity to apply the correct amount of breaking for the situation.




*which I can do, BTW, just not for very long.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let me give everyone some background info. I learned to drive on a car that had carburetor issues. Specifically, if you did not keep the idle up in cold weather, the engine would die. As such, I learned to drive with 2 feet, mainly out of necessity. Well, after a while I got another car, and while I did not have hold the gas pedal down all the time, the habit of left foot breaking remained, just because when I'd break my left foot would just naturally gravitate over to the break pedal. The car would stop, which was the aim, so I saw no harm in continuing to do so. Besides, does it really matter how I stop the car, as long as it stops? It's like slaying the dragon and then having the damsel in distress complain that I used an axe instead of a sword. WTF? DEAL. Would you have rather I left you with said horrible beastie?!

As far as the pros of dual foot driving in an automatic, there are actually some pretty good ones. First of all, your reaction time is drastically reduced by using both feet. Even if your foot is sitting next to the break, chances are that it is in relatively the same "position" as your right foot on the gas, with one important difference: it's probably 2 inches closer.

This leads to other advantages, like faster acceleration from a dead stop and an easier time with stop and go traffic; you don't have to keep moving your foot back and forth! Mastering advanced defensive driving techniques like threshold breaking, and proper cornering are also easier for a dual footed driver.

So, in closing I would just like to say that I'm tired of hearing about it, I ain't gonna change, it's the way I learned. it's NOT wrong, I plan to keep doing it, I haven't gotten hurt doing it (yet), so you can all just f*cking DEAL WITH IT.

Hey if it's not wrong, why go through all the effort to say so? Do you doubt yourself? I'm kidding, I think.

I drive with 1 foot, because that's how I learned. I haven't done any research on the subject, but based off what I know, driving with 1 foot seems to be much safer and pratical, even if driving with 2 feet does technically work.

However, I'm not going to call you an idiot for driving with two feet. If your not a hazard to the road then I don't have a porblem with it.

I say do what you want.

The car can't detect which foot is pressing what- so if you're hitting the pedals at the same frequency one-foot driver people do, then for all the car cares you could be pressing them with rocks.

I'm in the process of learning driving- I have a very slow start. For me, I might end up using two feet because it's still a little difficult for me to find the pedals without looking, and I don't want to wreck the car over it.

Aren't you supposed to have one foot on the gear change pedal and the other one for the acceleration/break ones?

I don't think I've ever seen anyone do it differently. Unless they have an automatic car, y'know. Then you don't need the gear change pedal.

Staffy is talking about automatic cars, where driving with two feet would mean 1 foot on the gas and the other on (or next to) the break.

In a manual car, yes, you would need 1 foot on the clutch and the other to brake/accelerate.

Oh. Right. Thanks. ^^ And yeah, I completely forgot it was 'brake' and not 'break'. Damn.

I'm sorry I really haven't read the whole post because it's too long and I'm a bit short on time, but what I heard is that two-foot driving is dangerous because there's something bad that happens to the car if you end up pressing the two pedals at once.

I'm really a terrible newbie on cars, though. I don't drive. But what I heard is that it's dangerous. I'll make sure to read the post later.

to preemptively answer your question: Yes. It is dangerous. But only if you do it like a moron. (Which I don't.)

Well it's just that it's more likely you'll hit both, which would be bad. If you only use one foot it's only possible to hit one at a time . But really it's whatever you're used to. I had to use 2 feet when driving home one day because the only way to keep my car from shuddering real bad (and possibly turning off) was to put it in neutral (automatic) and rev the engine a bit at stop lights. You can't do this with one foot . And it was somewhat difficult to use the left to brake since I've only driven with one foot ever (and am right footed).

But yeah the wearing the break out is pretty dumb. The transmission comment was just stupid. To me it just seems more logical to use one foot since you only ever hit the gas or the brake, also I think it requires a little less motor control to do so, since you're only controlling one limb and just have to pivot the foot. But pretty much everyone drives go-carts with 2 feet, since they have the pedals separated on each side usually, so eh.

Honestly I think it would be a little easier to drive stick using two feet since you're already used to driving with two feet, though there are a lot of minor difference that would throw you off (given when stopping you hit both the clutch and brake, and you push the clutch in slowly while letting go of the gas slowly unlike braking). Of course I wasn't very good the couple of times I drove stick so yeah. Continuously variable transmission FTW.

Hehe, i would think that no matter how many feet you drive with it's possible to drive like an idiot.

interesting though, i had never though of driving an automatic with two feet.... i don't really drive but i've learned and i learned on standard. though in america you barely have standard cars anymore, yesno? it's well dying out in canada anyway... so i figure america is prolly the same. so it doesn't partically matter for you staffy if you would have a harder time learning standard becuase you aren't particularily likely to do so.

It is my firm belief that an automatic sports car is a crime in of itself. So...Yeah. I might one day.

but by the day you have the capital to buy a sports car they might not be made in standard .... maybe. i know nothing about sports cars.

Actually, by the time I can afford a sports car, there will be no oil left to make it go.

I drive with one foot because I have big feet.

This makes me laugh about my sister's drivers test she failed about a month ago....she was two footing it.
I was a photographer for our vehicles here at my auction for about three years, and I noticed you could wreck quite easily driving with two feet (unless its a stick). I have done a lot of driving at my job, and besides the fact that using both feet is illegal here in CA, imo, you can really get confuzled when it comes time to hit the brakes.

Honestly, I can't use both feet on an automatic (my right foot only) it confuses me, but if your used to it, why not?

EDIT: Oh yeah! Now I'm stuck inside an office doing stupid paperwork for these vehicles (I miss my photo job).

I like driving one footed. I get to pretend like I'm playing a bass drum with my free foot. Rockin' out in a car is much more fun than actually driving!

Um, how the hell would they enforce something like that?

Yesterday i just trained around with my mom's car learning how to drive. She said i should use one foot, and i did. So i got used to it and it is more easier that way. Still... i almost hit a tree while driving yesterday, yikes!

Though it really depends on the person driving, if you are used to use both of your feet that shouldn't be any problem.