Does anyone nowadays bother using their handbrake when sat at traffic lights?

Yup, always handbrake & neutral unless I know the lights are about to change. Along with being courteous to the driver behind, it also helps prevent hitting the car in front if you get bumped from behind or your foot slips off the brake/clutch
 
[TW]Fox said:
My car automatically applies the brake lights when stationary and using the auto hold function. I have no choice about it. I'd imagine almost all modern cars are the same.
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This. I sometimes pop the electric handbrake on to stop the brake lights from blinding the person behind, but only if I know it's a long phase, or I'm stuck in traffic which isn't moving, etc.
 
Rroff said:
More or less - depends a bit on the drive type/tech used. Putting it in and out of park from drive will also illuminate reverse lights briefly which tends to panic or confuse people behind.
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so what do you do at night ?
just keep the brake pedal pressed even if it blinds the driver behind ?
 
Auto hold in my VW, no idea if the brake lights come on actually!
On another note does anyone ever put their auto into N? Can't remember ever using it, just D, R and P...
 
Yep handbrake on and foot off the brake so as not to dazzle the person behind.

TheVoice said:
Yes, at night especially so the LED brake lights aren't burned into the retinas of whoever's behind me. It'd be nice if others would return the favour but it rarely happens.
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What's worse is rear fog lights! I'm now behind you, I know you are there, please turn the damn thing off!
 
It depends for me. I drive a LOT locally being a bus driver and you learn light sequence timings. If I approach a light on red that I know will change by the time or a few seconds after I've applied the handbrake then I won't bother & just hold on the brake. Other times I will apply and come off the brake
 
Errr I stopped putting the handbrake at every stop 30mins after passing my driving test....
 
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My car is a manual and I use the handbrake all the time. It annoys me when I'm sat at lights behind someone blinding me with their brake lights so I'd rather not do the same thing to anyone else.

I have had it where I was at a fairly busy roundabout waiting to pull out and got rear ended at quite some speed. If I hadn't had the handbrake on I could've ended up with another car driving into my side.

Wife's car is an auto so I always use auto hold on that. It's not enabled by default when I fire the car up though but I always remember to enable it right away.
 
Rroff said:
More or less - depends a bit on the drive type/tech used. Putting it in and out of park from drive will also illuminate reverse lights briefly which tends to panic or confuse people behind.
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Not on most modern auto boxes surely? They don't look like this any more! P is now just a button on the side/top of the lever.

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I have auto hold on my car but like most versions this puts on the brake lights so I apply the handbrake whenever possible. When I pull away the handbrake releases itself automatically.
However on our fiesta it still has the quaint old-fashioned mechanical handbrake but both of us still use that whenever stationary as well...
 
It all depends really. If the person behind me looks like a normal sane human being, I’ll put the handbrake on. If they looking like a whiny scrote, they get the brake pedal.
 
mjt said:
Not on most modern auto boxes surely? They don't look like this any more! P is now just a button on the side/top of the lever.

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Still some models with the older style lever and anything more than a couple of years old or so will have a lever like that.
 
Uther said:
Auto hold in my VW, no idea if the brake lights come on actually!
On another note does anyone ever put their auto into N? Can't remember ever using it, just D, R and P...
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The manual for all the autos I own or where I've looked it up in the past say only to use neutral to restart the engine in the event of a stall while driving or other emergency condition.
 
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Well, I tried it when I was out at the shops and I can leave it in Drive and put the handbrake on. I could have sworn it bitched at me last time. Maybe I put it in Park and didn't engage the handbrake. Every day's a school day.
 
automatic car

Never put your car in "park" before it stops completely

Don't put it in "neutral" at stop lights



this is what i heard (looked it up now)



So does this mean putting in "park" is the hand brake on auto boxes ?
Why should you not put in Neutral :confused:
 
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ShiWarrior said:
automatic car

Never put your car in "park" before it stops completely

Don't put it in "neutral" at stop lights



this is what i heard (looked it up now)



So does this mean putting in "park" is the hand brake on auto boxes ?
Why should you not put in Neutral :confused:
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Park locks the box, you still have another hand brake.
 
ShiWarrior said:
So does this mean putting in "park" is the hand brake on auto boxes ?
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No.

On mine for example, albeit DSG rather than TC type auto, it specifically says to put the handbrake on before putting the box into P - presumably to prevent wearing/damaging the parking lock on the gearbox.
 
Whenever I could it would always be handbrake and foot off the brakes in my first car, since then all my cars have had the Autohold and Auto Handbrake function which leaves the lights illuminated.

Now having an Automatic I leave the car in Drive and foot on brake.

I agree that it can get tiring on the eyes when your doing plenty of night driving, especially in the rain.
 
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