Should you left foot brake while driving?

Experts and motorists cannot agree on whether this style of driving makes you safer or a hazard to other road users.

Aussies are divided by left foot braking. Photo: iStock

It’s the “dangerous habit” dividing automotive experts and Aussie drivers: should motorists always use their right foot to brake, or is there benefit to left foot braking in cars with two pedals?

There is no law against left foot braking.

Experts are split as to whether drivers should brake with their left foot. Picture: iStock

But Queenslanders applying for their driver’s licence should give it a miss, as the Department of Transport and Main Roads lists it as a “non-critical driving error” similar to selecting the wrong gear for a given circumstance.

Every driver on the Formula 1 grid brakes with their left foot.

Aussie F1 racer Oscar Piastri uses his left foot to brake while racing. Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Ross Bentley, a high-performance coach for racing drivers, suggested that “left foot braking is the way to go” as it “eliminates the fractions of a second that it takes to move your right foot from the throttle to the brake pedal, and vice versa”.

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Some drivers reckon left foot braking improves reaction time and fine control, while others think its better to brace your body with the left leg and brake with your right. #trackday#protip#f1#verstappen#lando#piastri#porsche#racing#driving#sim#question

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But many F1 drivers still use their right foot to brake when driving on the road.

Aussie F1 ace Oscar Piastri recently told YouTube channel Pitstop that the ergonomics of most road cars do not support left foot braking.

But Piastri prefers to brake with his right foot in road cars. Photo: Peter Fox/Getty Images

“The pedals are all offset for your right foot,” he said.

“Even if you tried to left foot brake, your foot basically ends up on top of your right foot … it’s not good.

“Right foot braking all the way.”

Driver advice from the National Roads and Motorists Association suggests left foot braking is a “dangerous habit” that should be avoided.

“Although many professional race drivers use their left foot to brake when in competition, the use of both feet is not a recommended for day-to-day driving,” it says.

High-performance cars such as the Porsche 911 GT3 allow left foot braking.

“When a driver has his right foot covering the brake and a hazard actually eventuates to a situation requiring hard braking, the driver is better and more certainly able to depress the brake pedal to further reduce speed while also bracing himself with his left foot securely in place on the left foot support.”

Normal cars such as VW’s Golf do not allow ‘overlap’ between brake and throttle.

Racers and high-performance driving enthusiasts often brake with their left foot to smooth transitions between acceleration and braking, or settle the car with a light application for fast corners.

James Stewart, director of Australian training provider Driving Solutions, said left foot braking is difficult to apply to many modern road cars.

Driving Solutions director James Stewart says left foot braking is not for everyone.

“There are less and less cars that you can left foot brake in,” he says.

“What I have noticed with a lot of new cars is that if you have the slightest overlap of left for brake and accelerator at the same time the motor dies.

“That’s in response to a lot of accidents where have people put cars through shop fronts.”

Some experts teach that left foot braking can be used to reduce a driver’s response time in an emergency.

“If you’re driving down the road and think ‘that car is going to pull out’, and put your left foot over the brake, you are going to save yourself some reaction time,” Stewart said.

“It’s not for everyone.”

Left foot braking advocates say it can reduce reaction times.

Questions surrounding left foot braking rose in the motoring pages of News Corp Australia publications in recent weeks. One reader, David Grant, said his doctor would not grant elderly drivers the OK to drive if they used their left foot to brake.

Debate raged in the letters section with some drivers stating that a miss-application of the brake or throttle was “shuddering to think about in an emergency”, while others felt a potential reduction in reaction times was “potentially life-saving”.

Motoring expert Iain Curry at Porsche’ Driver Training school

Motoring expert Iain Curry said “I’d much prefer left foot braking octogenarians on our roads than young folk scrolling social media at the wheel”.

“I left foot brake when fine control is needed, be it tight parking, 4x4 rock crawling or at the racetrack.”

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Originally published as Should you left foot brake while driving?