Pedals too close together.

oldbrownhat · Thursday at 11:53 PM

For some reason this came to mind

I guess I'm lucky I'm only a size 8-9, although with snow boots I have to be careful driving my Ford Ranger (manual trans of course).

Autonomous · 2025-06-20T00:05:16-0400

Rat458 said:
I had the same problem with Peterbilts also.

You used the clutch on a Peterbilt?

The first class 8 truck I drove was a needle nose Pete with non-synchro 5x4 trannies.
No instruction, had to figure them out from scratch.

LVSteve · 2025-06-20T00:24:48-0400

Cars haven't been made for wide feet/shoes for 20-30 years or more. The OP's shoes are simply not suitable for driving.

It's not just a wide problem. Lady friend of the family nearly wrecked a car in the 70s because her platform shoe somehow got wedged jamming the throttle. She managed to get out of the fix somehow, but after that she always kept a pair of flats in her car for driving.

steelslaver · 2025-06-20T07:50:11-0400

14 wide here . 6'3" and 300# lots of stuff is to close together for me

Rat458 · 2025-06-20T09:47:56-0400

Autonomous said:
You used the clutch on a Peterbilt?

The first class 8 truck I drove was a needle nose Pete with non-synchro 5x4 trannies.
No instruction, had to figure them out from scratch.

Only for stop lights.
If I had to use a clutch for shifting the tranny wouldn't last long.
Just the way I was taught 40+ years ago.

greenwellg · 2025-06-20T10:03:07-0400

Autonomous said:
I taught myself to use both feet driving an automatic.
Right foot for the throttle, left foot for the brake. It was a bit jerky at first but that soon passed.
Now, without even thinking about it, I cover the brake with my left foot in traffic. If something happens my reaction time will be much faster.

I did not want to post this for fear of being ridiculed. Been doing this for over 50 years. I don't advise it as most people would just look at me like I was crazy, but it has saved me many accidents to actually be able to slam on the brakes before I could get my right foot off the gas and on the brakes. Once I was damn near t-boned at an intersection when the other driver blew through a red light at 45 MPH and OF COURSE the vehicle next to me is blocking my view. The other driver locked his brakes up just past the intersection and I was in a 280Z and would have been killed or badly maimed for sure, My car was a manual transmission.

Rat458 · 2025-06-20T10:07:49-0400

greenwellg said:
I did not want to post this for fear of being ridiculed. Been doing this for over 50 years. I don't advise it as most people would just look at me like I was crazy, but it has saved me many accidents to actually be able to slam on the brakes before I could get my right foot off the gas and on the brakes. Once I was damn near t-boned at an intersection when the other driver blew through a red light at 45 MPH and OF COURSE the vehicle next to me is blocking my view. The other driver locked his brakes up just past the intersection and I was in a 280Z and would have been killed or badly maimed for sure, My car was a manual transmission.

My wife always complains about this to me.
Just the way I have driven since I learned to drive.

Denverd0n · 2025-06-20T12:24:25-0400

Used to have a friend who drove with one foot "over" the brake pedal. Once asked him, "Don't you end up with your foot resting on the pedal, and so dragging the brake a lot?"

"Nope," he assured me, "I'm very careful, and I never actually put my foot on the pedal."

Then I followed him up to a trailhead where we were going to go hiking one day. About 30 miles of mixed sorts of roads. His brake light was repeatedly on and off, when he was NOT stopping. It was probably on 75% of the time. I told him that. "Nope," he insisted, "not possible."

Yeah. Right. Whatever you want to tell yourself, I guess.

Autonomous · 2025-06-20T12:44:51-0400

When I post online about left-foot braking it has become predictable that someone will pop up and either flat out say or obliquely imply I ride the brakes.
Not the case. My assumption is they are projecting their own skill set.
My car has over 115,000 miles and still has most of the original brake pads.

Autonomous · 2025-06-20T14:44:56-0400

Rat458 said:
Only for stop lights.
If I had to use a clutch for shifting the tranny wouldn't last long.
Just the way I was taught 40+ years ago.

It's been 36 years since I've driven a Road Ranger, They are such a huge improvement over twin sticks. My favorite is the 13 speed, 9 and 10 speeds get you over the road but I like the option of closer splits in higher gears.

Pedals too close together.

oldbrownhat

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