Completely informal poll for my amusement...

[seawasp]

If you drive or have driven a car:


What do *you* call the brake (wherever located in your car) that isn't the main brake used to stop your vehicle while driving?

(I know what *I* call it, but I'm curious as to the proportion of people using the same term as i do versus others).

I'll probably post this on FB too, just to see if I get a different set of responses.

Comments

[nwhyte]

The hand-brake.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

It's a hand brake, here in the UK. No other name applies.

[seawasp]

Even if it's not where your hand reaches it, but somewhere on the far side of the car where you stomp on it instead of grab and pull?

[rdmasters.livejournal.com]

In Australia, at least, yes! For us it is a legal term as well. Odd, I know, but the law is what it is.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I call it the "emergency brake" but I've also heard it called the "parking brake."

[vulpine137.livejournal.com]

parking brake.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Normally parking brake, but emergency brake sometimes.

[onefishonly.livejournal.com]

Huh. I'm in the northeast US and always knew it as the "emergency brake," but both other names mentioned here make a lot more sense.

[argonel.livejournal.com]

I generally call it the parking brake, but acknowledge that hand brake and emergency brake are also valid. For variety you can also call it the thing that makes you skid in racing games, since that is about all it actually gets used for, but that is a bit unwieldy for ordinary conversation.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I set the parking brake every single time I park the car, because that is what I was taught. (And because I live in hilly country now, and it's generally a good idea to make things as secure as possible.)

And long ago, when I drove a stick shift, I learned the delicate art of using the emergency / parking brake to keep from rolling backward down a hill while shifting from neutral into first gear.

[argonel.livejournal.com]

This is what I was taught as well, and immediately discarded as soon as I passed my driving test. Also it is a good idea to either always use it or never use it when parking. Using it occasionally can lead to the cable rusting which typically leaves the brakes stuck in the engaged position rather than the disengaged position.

However I live in a pretty flat territory and have an automatic transmission (which includes a parking pawl) so I don't feel the need for extra security.

[gary-jordan.livejournal.com]

Ditto for taught! But I've called it parking and/or emergency and on the cars where it resides between driver and passenger seats, it's been the hand brake. Now I have an automatic transmission, level terrain, and rarely remember to set the brake.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Emergency brake if it's on the floor. Handbreak if it's up on the console between seats.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I use "parking brake" and "emergency brake" more or less interchangeably. If it's useful information, I grew up in Arizona, and my parents were from different parts of New York.

[hms42]

Emergency Brake is the only other one I can think of.

[nordhus.livejournal.com]

Håndbrekk. Now hånd means hand in Norwegian, but I don't believe brekk has any relevant* meaning, so I'm assuming this is actually a Norwegianified version of hand-brake.



*A brekk is slang for a burglary

[mariness.livejournal.com]

Parking brake.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Emergency brake. Massachusetts.

I think "handbrake" would have been unlikely to catch on in my youth, when the emergency brake was generally on the floor in the US-made automatic-transmission cars most people I knew drove.

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

Parking brake.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

"Hand brake" if it's the old lever set type; "Parking brake" if it's the foot-pedal setting type.

-- Steve thinks he may have called it "emergency brake" once or twice in the past, as well. What can he say, his vocabulary is ecumenical.

[moth-wingthane.livejournal.com]

Handbrake.

[shana.livejournal.com]

Emergency brake is what I grew up with, but in my car I'm likely to say hand brake.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Parking brake. Maryland usa

[rdmasters.livejournal.com]

Here in Oz, "Handbrake". No others need apply (or, indeed, are legally recognised terms).

[bunny-m.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

And yet, when I was still driving my LX Torana (many, many years go) I generally referred to/thought of it as the park brake.

'Cause i's not a handbrake when you engage it with your foot, duh. ;)

[kateshort.livejournal.com]

parking brake. sometimes, hand brake. [Mine are technically hand brakes since you pull on the lever with your hand, and I'd call the foot-pedal version a parking brake also.]

[kateshort.livejournal.com]

oh, yes. also emergency brake. grew up in MD and now live in IL. Parents are from WI and OH.

[leecetheartist.livejournal.com]

Hand Brake. Australia. Here we are taught to engage it whenever we park.

[lwe.livejournal.com]

I was following the argument on Usenet, and completely boggled that anyone cared.

I've used "emergency brake," "parking brake," and "handbrake" interchangeably since before I could drive; it never occurred to me that any of those terms might be preferable to the others, or that any of them might not be clear to everyone.

[kengr]

Parking brake or emergency brake.

[ricdavis.livejournal.com]

Handbrake. I've driven cars and heavier vehicles from the 1900s through to the 1930s. There's typically a hand operated brake and a foot operated brake. They are called hand brake and foot brake in the driving literature of the time. Although their characteristics may differ, the hand operated brake is the normal service brake quite often. I'm in the UK.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Growing up in New England, when it was typically a chunky pedal on the floor, it was an emergency brake even though it was exclusively used for parking because "EMERGENCY BRAKE" was stenciled on the release handle.

The three cars that I've owned have hand brakes above what would be the transmission hump if they were rear-wheel drive vehicles.

In neither case is it actually intended for use in emergencies. Quite the contrary, reaching for a pedal or lever positioned well away from the normal operating controls is tantamount to loosing control of the vehicle unless you've been specifically trained for it.

[seawasp]

Er, how do you figure that? I've been in three separate situations in which the specific relevant emergency -- main brakes fail -- presented itself. I have had no particular training at all. Nonetheless I had no trouble whatsoever reaching down and applying the emergency brake along with downshifting to reduce speed and stop the vehicle. Never did I lose control. In fact, in one case (due to lack of funds) I had to drive that way for a week.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Parking brakes apply less brake pressure than the hydraulic-assist brakes. They're intended to keep a stationary car stationary, not to stop a moving car. Engine braking is a far more effective method of slowing a moving vehicle. It will bleed off more speed than the parking brake will and allow you to retain full control of the vehicle. In fact, engine braking should be used as the primary braking mechanism in manual gearbox vehicles. The hydraulic assist brakes (or parking brake if it comes to that) should be used to assist the engine.

I don't consider a hydraulic system failure as an emergency per se. If you have control over the vehicle and you have time and road to stop safely then it's not an emergency. An imminent collision? That's an emergency. In a situation like that, taking your hand off the steering wheel diminishes your control of the vehicle. Trying to find the hand brake in those conditions means your attention is split. If you set the hand brake too hard you can lock the wheels and start skidding.

[seawasp]

Every time brakes failed in my experience, it's when I'm trying to *stop* with them, which means, generally, there's something in front of me I'm going to hit, or someplace, like an intersection, where I might hit someone or be hit if I keep going. So in my experience while in theory the brakes failing may not, by itself, be an emergency, the moment that you find OUT they failed is almost certainly going to become one RIGHT THEN.

And again, based on my experience, it's not hard to use the brake at the same time as you're downshifting, thereby getting *BOTH* the engine and the emergency brakes in on the deal (plus engine braking by itself is only gonna slow you, not stop you, unless you have the balls and skill to try to use REVERSE at the end, which is gonna be tricky if you want the transmission intact.

I've done this in emergency three times, and as I said, drove using that brake for a week. Yes, it's weaker than the standard brakes, but jeez, it's not *THAT* much weaker. If it can lock the wheels -- which it can, if you're not careful -- it can give you as much braking power as the two wheels could possibly manage.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Then I'd say that you're not representative of typical drivers.

[gary-jordan.livejournal.com]

I've been in that situation, and one of the things I learned in Defensive Driving class is to turn off the engine with the gears engaged. NOT to use reverse. Only done it once, but I needed it in the worst way. Turning off the engine also removes power steering and power assist brakes, so it isn't a first resort