Brake it Down: What Those Pedals Really Do!

Do you know why my coaches and I always advise parents to coach their teen’s first driving lessons in a parking lot? We do this because no one can know exactly how much pressure to apply to a brake or gas pedal until they experience the sensation for themselves. First-time drivers will almost always press too hard on one or both pedals at least a few times during their early lessons. Having a big, open space to get the hang of it makes this a much safer learning process.

Since pretty much all of our teen drivers are learning to drive with an automatic transmission car, I have found that it is very important to teach them a little something about how the transmission works. Most students start lessons with the assumption that the gas pedal is what causes a car to move. They quickly find out that it’s not! It’s the transmission that causes a car to move. The brake and gas pedals simply inhibit or add power to that movement. This information is most crucial when I teach students how to maneuver the car in reverse.

What Happens When You Take Your Foot Off the Brake?

When a driver shifts a gear selector from Park into Drive, the transmission engages the wheels. Your foot should be on the brake when you make this shift, which holds the wheels still. Remove your foot from the brake, and that engagement will begin to turn the wheels. We usually call this coasting.

Even on a completely flat surface, like a parking lot, the car can coast up to about 10 or 15 miles per hour. Many of my students are surprised to learn this. They assume that the gas pedal is what initiates wheel engagement, and that coasting is merely a matter of gravity or momentum. This simple fact, that a car in drive will move without any pedal pressure, is a crucial safe driving skill! Drivers who understand this will always be more aware of how the car is likely to operate in a given situation.

For example, the student who does not understand this concept tends to be extremely nervous when stopped while the car is pointing uphill. They are afraid that the car will roll backwards when they take their foot off the brake, so they rush to get their foot on the gas pedal and apply way too much pressure. While the car might not move forward very well in the uphill position, it certainly won’t start rolling backwards. Drivers who know that the transmission is already working to move the car forward before the gas pedal comes into play can smoothly get the car going again.

Let the Transmission Do the Work in Reverse

The car’s transmission works exactly the same when the gear shift selector is moved to the Reverse position. The only difference is that the wheels will be engaged to move the opposite direction. This means that for the brief amount of time most students will need to back up a car, only the brake pedal is needed. The car does not need much speed to be maneuvered out of a parking space, so it is best to just coast it out before shifting into Drive.

Backing up the car makes many student drivers nervous. Even with modern technology like backup cameras and sensors, there is much more car behind the driver than in front. It’s a lot of information to process. When we add in the task of moving the foot back and forth between two pedals, students can really feel that information overload.

Here’s what happens most often. I will instruct a student to start backing out of a driveway or parking space. They begin to apply a little bit of pressure to the gas pedal, just to boost the rate of movement. As the instructor, I’m watching all around us, staying alert. I tell the student, “there is a car coming.” The nervous student, in a moment of jitters, forgets to switch pedals and presses even harder on the gas pedal. In my Safe Driving Coach car, no problem. I press my instructor’s brake, and the car stops. In the real world, we have a crash.

But what happens if the teen driver simply lifts their foot off the brake pedal, leaving it poised right in that same position? Now, they might back up slightly slower. But when I say, “there’s a car coming,” they will push right back down on the brake pedal. The car will stop, and the teen driver is still in full control of the situation. Fewer things to remember means fewer jitters.

Of course, there are instances where a driver needs to use the gas pedal in reverse. If you need to move a longer distance, back up a hill, or back the car up into a driveway, some power will be needed. But that is part of a learning process that can come with time. Not every driving technique needs to be learned in the first few weeks of lessons!

Safe Drivers Build on Their Skills with Practice and Knowledge

Teen drivers who understand the basics of how their car operates, and who take their time to build new skills upon first skills, will become lifelong safe drivers. As they gain a sense of comfort with how the car moves under various amounts of pressure in the parking lot, they will advance to knowing when to pull off the gas and pump the brakes on a neighborhood street. Once they can back out of a parking spot smoothly, they will learn how much pressure is needed to back up over a driveway curb.

If your teen driver seems overwhelmed during a lesson, apply the brakes. See what you can safely remove from their list of tasks in order to simplify the main process they need to learn in that moment. Wait until they have that move under their belt before adding new skills into the mix. Allow them to learn at a pace that promotes their genuine understanding of the task of driving.

As experienced drivers, parents sometimes forget how much they have learned since they were in their new teen driver’s seat. My course, The Parent’s Survival Guide for New Teen Drivers, is designed to help you start at square one with teaching your teen how to drive. If you know your teen would benefit even more from the professional support of a Safe Driving Coach, contact us to learn more about Driving Lessons. We are passionate about building safe driving skills from the ground up so that our students become lifelong safe drivers.