On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:31:50 -0700 (PDT), Harry K
wrote:
On Mar 18, 1:44Â*pm, wrote:
On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:47:46 -0700 (PDT), Harry K
wrote:
On Mar 18, 5:14Â*am, wrote:
On Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:39:54 -0700, Ashton Crusher
wrote:
On Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:27:04 -0400, wrote:
On Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:50:47 -0400, "Ed Pawlowski"
wrote:
"jamesgangnc" wrote
I defy anyone to drive any time at all with their left foot in the air
above the pedal. Â*Whether they are aware of it or not, they _will_
have their foot touching the pedal.
Harry K
If you have your left foot on the brake you need to hold the foot up.
Resting the front of your foot on the brake pedal is riding the brakes
on many cars. Â*After hours on the road you will relax those muscles.
As a practical matter, you don't hold your foot in the air, nor do you rest
in on the pedal. You keep your foot on the floor just like any other driver.
If you are in a situation where you "may" need the brakes at any time, you
can then elect to move that foot to a ready position, thus the faster
reaction time.
Â*If you are a right-foot braker and you are in a situation where you
might need to brake at any time you take your RIGHT foot off the
accellerator, and while it is still in motion, without having to
command the LEFT foot to do anything, you hit the brakes.
Much faster reaction time, and NO CHANCE that both feet will be down
at the same time on both pedals.
Left foot braking IS dangerous - it doesn't matter how many years YOU
have gotten away with it..
how ridiculous. Â*whatever you can do with your right foot you can do
just as quickly with your left foot. Â*The difference is that you can
pre-position your left foot in situations where you would not be
taking your right foot off the throttle. Â*In doing so you eliminate
about a half second of reaction time should that situation deteriorate
to where you do need to brake. Â*There is nothing dangerous about left
foot braking, to the contrary, it's safer then right foot braking. You
sound like a hysterical old woman.
The ONLY reason that braking with the right foot is customary is
because cars used to have a third pedal for the clutch. If the first
cars had come equipped with automatic transmissions, NO ONE would use
their right foot for braking. It would be stone cold stupid to do
everything with one foot, unless your other foot had been amputated.
Do these chuckleheads steer with only one hand, because in the olden
days, you needed your other hand for shifting?- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Now THAT goes beyond stupid. Â*The only car I know of that had 3 pedals
was the Model T.
Harry K
Â*You sure about that, Harry??
Every standard shift car I ever drove had 3 pedals.
Some even had 4 (foot operated emergency brake)- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
If you count _all_ the foot operated controls, some had 5, or even 6
if there was a foot operated emergency. dimmer, starter, clutch,
brake, gas. Of course the dimmer and starter weren't "pedals". There
were even a few that had a foot operated radio tuner....oops, I forgot
the 'stomp on this to spray windshield thingy' Geez, It didn't seem
so crowde when I was driving them 
Curious, About what year did the starter become fairly standard on the
key switch?
Same for about when the dimmer moved to the column.
With all the old cars I drove back then I can't recall if my 38 chev
had starter on key but I am sure it still had the dimmer on floor.
Harry K
Chrysler had push button starting in the early 30's (1933 Chrysler)
but foot operated starters will still relatively common through the
fourties. Just about all had dash mounted push-button or key operated
starters in the fifties.
1948 Olds still had a foot operated starter, so I'm pretty sure your
'38 Chevvie did too.
Hudson/Nash had foot starters up to '55, Stude to '54, and some Chevy
trucks up 'till '59.
As a general rule, MOST vehicles had moved away from the floor mounted
starter by the time they went to 12 volt systems
The dimmer on the floor was pretty well standard on American cars up
into the early '80s and on trucks into the '90s.