Rocking Horse in A Past Life

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

Anyone else see this? Someone at a stop light (not always a long one), and someone keeps... I dunno, taking their foot off the break, which results in the car rolling BACKWARD a bit, then rolling backforward. Repeat again and again and again until the light turns green.

These people always make me nervous. I don't get why they roll back, even not on a slope, and if I was rolling, sure as shoot I'd keep my bloody foot on the break (I do anyway!). One slip away from a fender-bender. What on earth are they thinking?

[Shalom]

Someone not used to using a clutch?

[Andara Bledin]

I do that on purpose, sometimes, since I drive a manual.

There is an incline if the car rolls backwards without the car being in reverse. And it's usually either out of boredom, or to relieve stiffness if I've been in the same driving position for too long.

Plus, it can make starting a bit easier, and if it's on a real slope, it makes the rollback from going from a stop with the brakes on to clutch and gas less notable. Not all of us stick-shift drivers know the trick to using your left foot on both the brake and clutch at the same time.

^-.-^

[Mikkel]

Not all of us stick-shift drivers know the trick to using your left foot on both the brake and clutch at the same time.

I was taught to use the handbrake in that kind of situation. Pull it but press the button, let it down when you can feel that the clutch is engaged, after a couple of tries you will start smoother than someone with automatic.

[LillFilly]

I do hate that, but that's why I give the vehicles in front of me plenty of personal space, just in case.

I was stopped at an intersection on a VERY steep hill. I was hard on the break, but inevitably slid back a few inches every time I got to move forward. I was paranoid because the old bat behind me was almost touching my bumper. I finally started hitting the gas with one foot while easing off the break with the other, just to have some margin of safety with her!

[Chromatix]

The way I was taught to do a hill-start (on manual) was to use the handbrake, then (with an appropriate amount of throttle) release the clutch just far enough that the car was trying to move forward against the brake, rather than backward (there's usually enough slack in the brake rigging to notice this easily). At that point you drop the brake and the car starts moving forward.

[Shalom]

One of the various things wrong with the Renault 4, as related to me by an Israeli acquaintance who'd driven one in his home country, was that if you had it in first gear, there was no way to pull the handbrake because the two levers would bang into each other, making this type of hill-start impossible...

[blas]

I've only seen it a few times, and it's always been on the exit off of the freeway.....see, the exit actually goes up an incline and then traffic has to stop to turn either left or right at the end.

Of course it freaked me out a bit....and since I've never owned a stick or driven one enough to get it pat-down, I'm not sure if the people doing it are doing it to be jerks or to help themselves take off easier from the stop.

All I care is please don't back into me on a Friday afternoon.

[protege]

Both of my cars are stick-shifts. I can handle hill starts...and *rarely* does my car roll back at all! And no, there's no jerking of the clutch or gear-grinding either

[mikoyan29]

I used to have a manual and I got to the point where I could have the clutch out just far enough and the gas in just far enough to where I wouldn't roll back.

[bhskittykatt]

As long as there's room, I'll rock the car while waiting at an intersection sometimes out of sheer boredom.

I used to have a manual and I got to the point where I could have the clutch out just far enough and the gas in just far enough to where I wouldn't roll back.

That's how I do it. Though I wish I'd known the handbrake trick before taking a wrong turn and going up 8th St in Astoria, OR. Whoever put a stop sign on the top of that hill truly has an evil sense of humor.

[PepperElf]

well i confess that sometimes i'll take my foot off the break on an incline just cos i know it's steep enough to not let my car go forward

but never ever made it rock like that