Pedals too close together?

[Jeff Antonucci]

I seem to be hitting the gas a bit when I apply the brakes. Are any other of you second gen owners experiencing this?

 

[mookie]

Yes Jeff, that has been reported a couple of times causing unwanted acceleration during braking.



Do you have big feet/wear boots?

 

[Mike Dziubina]

happens to me...i hug the right side of the brake pedal with boots

 

[Bob McDonald]

I can relate to this. It happens frequently to me and mine is a gen 1.

 

[Rodger Tellefson]

Never had a problem with that on our gen. 1.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I've almost had accidents because of this when wearing combat boots. My Mazda 3 is even worse than the ST in this regard.

 

[Bill Barber]

I know it is wrong, but all my life I have braked with my left foot.

Never an accident in almost 50 yrs.

 

[rob chaw]

I got a Gen 1 Job 2 and my feet aren't that big, but i did have that happen a couple of times too...

 

[Kevin Lang]

I know it is wrong, but all my life I have braked with my left foot.

Same here, though I don't consider it wrong



Even with boots on in the Gen 1 ST, I have never had this problem, but my buddy in steel toed workboots is a fan of the 1 foot method, and he got his foot twisted under the dash when trying to needlessly brake on an entry ramp to I95, ending up flooring the accelerator for a while before he could extricate his foot. Luckily nothing bad happened, though my buddy's pants almost got a bit browner on that commute to UPS...I thought he was also mashing the brake, but he wasn't...his 1999 Chevy Malibu just can't accelerate, something that I'm thankful for.



Though I have experienced this problem in the Gen 1, though that's just when I've been playing with this whole power launching idea, so it's on purpose lol

 

[EddieS'04]

I know it is wrong, but all my life I have braked with my left foot.

Me too. With automatics..

 

[Kevin Lang]

I know it is wrong, but all my life I have braked with my left foot.

Same here, though I don't consider it wrong



Even with boots on in the Gen 1 ST, I have never had this problem, but my buddy in steel toed workboots is a fan of the 1 foot method, and he got his foot twisted under the dash when trying to needlessly brake on an entry ramp to I95, ending up flooring the accelerator for a while before he could extricate his foot. Luckily nothing bad happened, though my buddy's pants almost got a bit browner on that commute to UPS...I thought he was also mashing the brake, but he wasn't...his 1999 Chevy Malibu just can't accelerate, something that I'm thankful for.



Though I have experienced this problem in the Gen 1, though that's just when I've been playing with this whole power launching idea, so it's on purpose lol

 

[Dingo]

I've never hit both and I wear a 14.

 

[Richard L]

It's happened to me numerous times on my 2003 Sport Trac...and it can be scary. I found that it happened more often when I wore a specific pair of shoes that had thick, stiff soles. That seems to make it harder to sense that your foot is also hitting the accellerator pedal. Thinner soled shoes gave me more sensitivity and allowed me to shift my foot over so I only caught the brake pedal.



...Rich

 

[Brandon Seeley 3]

I never had a problem I wear 15......you must have big ass feet!!

 

[Kevin Lang]

allowed me to shift my foot over

Seriously, I don't see how ya'll drive with only one foot...holding that left foot at the ready builds shin muscles. Other than the emergency brake, what is there for your left foot to do elsewise?



Then again, I didn't know you were "supposed" to do the one foot thing until the driving test...and when I test drove a ranger the dash was so low that I couldn't pivot my right, but the 2 foot method worked so much better.



Can shifting feet really be faster than 2 feet? I don't think so, and I adamantly believe that the one foot method leads to the impaired (for lack of a better term) driving methods that we all see too frequently. (Braking at the last second, braking excessively prior to a turn, braking in the turn) I'm always told by my compadres that they brake so late because they don't want to "switch their foot until they have to", which was the basis for my "theory" here.



Tangenting a bit on the thread, but since the root of the problem seems to be the prescribed one foot method, I'm interested in thoughts on it.

 

[TRACket Paul]

43 years of left foot braking here.

 

[Jeff Antonucci]

OK - seems like it is an issue. I'm going to look at modifying one of the pedals before I give somebody a Sport Trac enima...



Thanks for the feedback everybody.



Jeff

 

[John Z]

I am 6' 3" 285 pounds, and wear a size 16 shoe (drive with only my right foot) - have no problems at all driving.

 

[Jeff Jolley]

Same here, I've had no problems at all with my 08 STA.

 

[Dave S 2]

I'd say no because I wear a size 15/16 shoe and have never had a pedal issue.