Operating a vehicle 101

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

You were taught?

[Singin' Sue 71615]

Left foot was for clutch...right for gas and brake.

Oh...and left foot for clicking the high beam knob!!!

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 minute ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

Left foot was for clutch...right for gas and brake.

Oh...and left foot for stomping high beam knob!!!

 

[Rye Miles #13621]

My dad taught me using only my right foot but being a drummer and used to using my left foot on the high hat and right foot on the bass drum, I quickly started driving with both feet without even thinking about it.

[Pat Riot]

20 minutes ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

Left foot was for clutch...right for gas and brake.

Oh...and left foot for clicking the high beam knob!!!

What she said ^^^^^ 

 

 

I have always considered those that use the left foot for the brake to be trained incorrectly. 

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

34 minutes ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

Left foot was for clutch...right for gas and brake.

Oh...and left foot for clicking the high beam knob!!!

What Sue said. Left foot was for the clutch pedal. 

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

left is for clutch.   Wife's MINI does best when driven this way (I get to drive it when it needs gas )

[Subdeacon Joe]

32 minutes ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

Oh...and left foot for clicking the high beam knob!!!

 

The first time I drove a car with the high beam switch on the column (my brother's car,  I think it was a Volvo) i accidentally clicked the high beams on  and couldn't figure out how to turn them off.  Drove from near Palomar Junior College in  San Marcos CA over the back roads to Leucadia with them on.  Kept feeling around with my left foot trying to find the foot switch. 

[Pat Riot]

2 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

The first time I drove a car with the high beam switch on the column (my brother's car,  I think it was a Volvo) i accidentally clicked the high beams on  and couldn't figure out how to turn them off.  Drove from near Palomar Junior College in  San Marcos CA over the back roads to Leucadia with them on.  Kept feeling around with my left foot trying to find the foot switch. 

I did the same thing when I rented a Mazda GLC back in ‘82. A guy at the hotel parking lot showed me what I had done wrong. He griped at me for blinding him. When I told him I couldn’t figure out how to dim the lights he showed me the lever for high / low beams. 

[Subdeacon Joe]

With the Nissan Leaf we now have I usually drive with the "E-pedal" engaged.  One foot driving  - let off the acceleration pedal and the brakes engage for more aggressive regenerative braking.   I can drive Ll around town running errands and hardly touch the brakes. 

[Smuteye John SASS#24774]

1 hour ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

Left foot was for clutch...right for gas and brake.

Oh...and left foot for clicking the high beam knob!!!

Impressive flexibility.

 

The high beam/low beam selector is built into the turn signal lever on my truck.

 

I don't drive automatic transmissions 2 footed.  Right foot works brake and accelerator while the left foot hunts for the non-existent clutch.

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

Every once in a while I get behind somebody whose brake light is on constantly. I know they are driving with two feet. Very dangerous, can't tell when they are stopping.

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

2 minutes ago, Smuteye John SASS#24774 said:

 

The high beam/low beam selector is built into the turn signal lever on my truck.

When they first did that the hillbilly/ rednecks had a lot of trouble with it. Kept getting their feet caught it the steering wheel trying to work the high beams.

[Smuteye John SASS#24774]

1 minute ago, Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485 said:

Every once in a while I get behind somebody whose brake light is on constantly. I know they are driving with two feet. Very dangerous, can't tell when they are stopping.

And accelerates the wear on their brakes.  That little bit of pedal pressure is transferred to the pads, so they are slightly in contact with the discs or drums.

 

I was taught to keep my foot off of the clutch unless using it and to keep my hand off of the shifter for the same reason.

[Singin' Sue 71615]

22 minutes ago, Smuteye John SASS#24774 said:

Impressive flexibility.

 

The high beam/low beam selector is built into the turn signal lever on my truck.

 

I don't drive automatic transmissions 2 footed.  Right foot works brake and accelerator while the left foot hunts for the non-existent clutch.

You,sir were born just after the high beam was a knob on the floorboard of the vehicle...to the left of the clutch on a standard or the brake in an automatic transmission...

But yes... I have many talents!!!

 

I do recall driving the long stretch of road to Vaughn, NM on the way to Waxahachie (the back way) and daddy was trying to sleep in the back of the station wagon.

I kept clicking that knob, mumbling to myself why that car/motorcycle wouldn't lower his beams...when daddy said "Susanne...that train only has one beam...it ain't gettin' any lower!"

[Singin' Sue 71615]

1 hour ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

 

I NEVER stomp!!!

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]

Also, left foot was for the floor mounted starter switch! (Am I that old?)

[Tex Jones, SASS 2263]

Left foot is used to stomp on the brake pedal only when you're headed into an "OH S**T"! crash.

[Singin' Sue 71615]

7 minutes ago, Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L said:

Also, left foot was for the floor mounted starter switch! (Am I that old?)

International????

[Singin' Sue 71615]

3 minutes ago, Tex Jones, SASS 2263 said:

Left foot is used to stomp on the brake pedal only when you're headed into an "OH S**T"! crash.

I did use both feet and locked in, pulling the 5th wheel through Wichita, Ks on the way to EOT.

I bet the car in front of me had the drivers butt raise off the seat too!!!

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

 

https://www.vox.com/2015/7/1/8877583/two-foot-driving-pedal-error

[Alpo]

In driver's ed - 1970 - we were taught to drive with the right foot. Even though we learned on cars with automatics, our teacher said that we quite possibly will drive a standard at some time, and will have to learn to clutch with the left foot, which meant we would have to learn to brake with the right foot, so we might as well learn the correct manner now. We were also told that braking with the left foot led to riding the brake, which both left the brake lights on all the time, so the people following you never knew when you were slowing down, and it wore your brakes out prematurely.

 

 

Mama came home one night. She had gone off somewhere and Daddy's brand new 1979 deuce and a quarter, and it was after dark when she had returned. The brights were on, and she had not been able to figure out how to turn them off. This was the first automobile we had ever had that had the dimmer switch on the turn signal.

 

 

I rented a car at the San Juan airport, and drove to Aguadilla on the other end of the island. With my windshield wipers on the entire way. I did not need my windshield wipers - it was a nice clear dry day - but I did not know how to turn the damn things off. No owner's manual in the glove box. I had to get someone in the motel parking lot to show me how to turn the damn things off. The on-off switch was on the right side of the steering column, where the gear shift would normally be on an automatic transmission, but this piece of junk had the gear shift sticking up out of the floor. I guess it was to make people that could not drive a stick feel like they were driving a stick.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Once again I'm feeling like an obsolete old fossil!
Starter pedal was above the throttle on the Dodge Power Wagon we used for a brush fire truck.
Left foot for the clutch and dimmer switch as previously mentioned by wiser folk than myself.
This is not to be confused with the foot pedal for a T model Ford's planetary transmission.

And my father had absolutely nothing good to say about the mechanical brakes on his father's oilfield flatbed, but that has nothing to do with which hind hoof performs which function.

And yes ... I too have gone STOMP STOMP STOMP on the floorboard, hunting for the missing clutch, and one time Mama seized the end of my baby sister's majorette baton in an attempt to shift from third to fourth gear!

(Little Sis was sitting beside her, one end of the baton on the transmission hump, the other end sticking up ... as I recall, Mama banged her knuckles into the dash in her effort ...)

[Pat Riot]

27 minutes ago, Father Kit Cool Gun Garth said:

 

https://www.vox.com/2015/7/1/8877583/two-foot-driving-pedal-error

“Some experts believe”?…

Usually means someone trying to justify their reasons for something. 

[John Kloehr]

When the automatic was introduced, the marketing department was where the wide brake pedal came from.

 

They wanted it obvious there was something different on these cars, something the sales people could point out other than the simple lack of a clutch pedal. So the brake pedal got wider. The engineers had only deleted the clutch pedal.

 

And the biggest complaint new buyers had was forgetting the car had an automatic transmission, going for the clutch when coming to a stop, and adding the left foot to the right foot already on the (now wide) brake pedal. Sometimes locking up the brakes.

 

That wide brake pedal would flunk safety testing if it were introduced today.

[Cactus Jack Calder]

2 hours ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

Left foot was for clutch...right for gas and brake.

Oh...and left foot for clicking the high beam knob!!!

What she said! 

 

CJ

[Alpo]

Pretty sure I've told this before, but I like the story, and the statute of limitations has run out.

 

In high school I drove a three on the tree. In my senior year, for some reason, I was allowed to drive my mother's brand new 1972 Buick LeSabre. Just this one day. And with all that power under the hood, I got in a drag race.

 

I'm sitting there with the transmission in neutral, romping on the accelerator, listening to that four barrel open up. When the word came to go, I pulled the shift down into low and stomped on it. Got it up to maybe 30 mph, then my left foot was going for the clutch. Hit the left side of that great big power brake pedal, stood that car on its nose almost, and shoved it into park reaching for second.

[Rye Miles #13621]

My uncle had a 57 Cadillac that had a button on the floor next to the bright button (I think) that changed the radio stations. My uncle would say “Change the channel Mr Radio” we thought he was somehow doing it with his mind!!

[Ozark Huckleberry]

Clutch — left foot. Both wheel brakes — right foot. Gas — on the column. 
 

That was how I learned to drive, so when I got to regular trucks and cars., it was left foot clutch, right foot brake and gas. No clutch = left foot was just for the dimmer. 

[Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795]

Right foot-gas and brakes, left foot- clutch and dimmer switch. Learned on a three on the tree car. Loved  it when the floor shifts became popular.

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

30 minutes ago, Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 said:

Loved  it when the floor shifts became popular

My mom said when they moved the shifter to the steering column it was the greatest! freed up room for another front seat passenger.

I was following a old Buick the other day, could not figure out what the guy was doing, waving his hand around like he was directing the orchestra. After about 3 blocks realized he was shifting a 3 speed.  

[Smuteye John SASS#24774]

3 hours ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

You,sir were born just after the high beam was a knob on the floorboard of the vehicle...to the left of the clutch on a standard or the brake in an automatic transmission...

But yes... I have many talents!!!

 

I do recall driving the long stretch of road to Vaughn, NM on the way to Waxahachie (the back way) and daddy was trying to sleep in the back of the station wagon.

I kept clicking that knob, mumbling to myself why that car/motorcycle wouldn't lower his beams...when daddy said "Susanne...that train only has one beam...it ain't gettin' any lower!"

My 1st vehicle was a '67 F-100.

 

240 straight 6, 1 barrel, 3 on the tree- and the floor dimmer switch.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Many many years ago, some might say it was the last time I worked , I had a job in a slaughterhouse for the summer. I had learned to drive in the Army, everything had a clutch. Joe, the foreman, gave me a task. He chose me for odd jobs because he knew I could follow directions. I was to deliver a small package to a guy at the rail yard nearby and use Leo’s Cadillac.

 

OMG POWER EVERYTHING. I very quickly learned to lock my left foot to the floor.

 

later I deduced that the package, a tenderloin, was a payoff for doing a favor, likely backdating the return of a sidecar. There were several such side hustles that I observed during my short time there.

[Blackwater 53393]

When I have a manual transmission equipped car. I generally reposition the gas and brake pedals so that I can heel and toe!  My left foot is for the clutch pedal when I have one and to keep the beat with what's on the radio if I don't have a clutch pedal.

 

I found, years ago, that I could get my foot off the gas and onto the brake pedal faster than I could my left foot off of the floor and onto the brake!!

 

If you're riding around with with your left foot poised above the brake pedal, I certainly don't want to ride with you and I really don't want to share the road with you either!!!