My Father was one of the best drivers I've ever known. He drove jeeps and Army trucks all over the ETO in WWII. In civilian life he drove various buses, large trucks, towed travel trailers and boats. I witnessed (from the back seat of our 1972 Chrysler New Yorker) him quickly backing a 28 ft. travel trailer down a 1/4 mile curving one-lane on ramp, without any hesitation. Every time we pulled into a trailer park (that didn't have pull-through spaces) people always gathered around, because they assumed it was going to be fun to watch him struggle with parking it, and they were always left slack-jawed when he slapped it in there on the first try. Often times other campers would ask my Dad if he'd park their trailers for them, and he always did, and always made it look effortless. He used to say he had put more miles on in reverse than most people had in forward, and I suspect there was some truth to that.
So, when he taught me to drive...I listened. He was adamant that I NEVER use my left foot for anything, excepting for the clutch (all of our cars were automatics by then, on the insistence of my Mother). Every time we were on the road, and we'd see a car in front of us with either the brake lights constantly on, or the brake lights would flash at irregular and illogical intervals, he'd always comment that he'd bet 10-to-1 that the driver was using his left foot for the brake. He'd also say that (aside from the safety issue of drivers behind them not knowing when they're actually hitting their brakes) they must be wearing their brakes down faster, and probably getting worse gas mileage. I've followed his advice, and never, ever used my left foot for the brake,
Additionally, I recall seeing some study where they tested reaction times of drivers using both methods, and found that, at best, there was no advantage of either, but at the worst, the left footed brakers were slower. I'm sorry, I have no link to that specific study...but a quick search on Yahoo found multiple discussions of the pros and cons of both. It seems that some race car drivers use the left foot braking technique under some specific racing conditions or situations. In any case, I imagine most of us would agree that not all driving techniques which may be valid or useful on the racetrack are proper or correct for use on public roads.
Tim
After reading Bullzaye post above I realized that, the left foot for me was always the clutch and for those of us that are old enough to remember for the dimmer switch.
