Left foot braking on automatics

[springswood]

I think the heavy left foot is a learned thing. A while back I didn't drive at all for six years or more. When I got a car again it mostly came back to me immediately. The hardest thing to relearn was the fine control on the accelerator pedal

[Dayjo]

Some years ago, I had an operation on my right big toe. Involved cropping through, then re-attaching, using a 3mm dia screw......

During the recovery period. I could use the accelerator. But, mustn't use the heavier brake pedal.

Left foot braking, became the norm. Don't use it now though......

[richardfrost]

If you are performing an emergency stop in an automatic, which is surely the situation Honest John is concerned about, re quick reactions, you lift your foot very quickly of the drive pedal and then move it over to the brake pedal and slam on.

It is not beyond the wit of modern fly by wire controls to detect that the pedal has been released very quickly and to start to automatically apply some braking, or at least move into a state of collision preparedness. Especially since most new cars now have some form of collision detection technology.

I think the answer is somewhere in the electronics and not in left foot braking. The human driver is the slowest reacting part of the process.

[Paul22118]

The only sensible occasion when one should left foot brake is if there is a physical impediment, such as a dodgy knee or recently mended ankle fracture.  If you practise it can become sensitive but in general it is never taught.