Anyone get rear-ended at a red light with your manual trans.?

[77rs]

Originally Posted by Jeff_SS

He means when you take your foot off the brake, but you still have the clutch in, so you don't start moving forward. People behind you are used to cars moving forward after they see the brake lights disappear, so they might start to go forward automatically; therefore rear-ending you.

Exactly! Manual drivers know what I mean.

[Supreme Leader]

Originally Posted by 77rs

Exactly! Manual drivers know what I mean.

I am a manual driver...

[2012-1822]

I'm not going to lie. Some of the lights near my house have a pretty long cycle and I am aware when I pull up where it is in the cycle. If I know I'm going to be there a minute I'll pull the E brake and relax my feet. I don't know, might re-think that approach.

[Jenner]

Not yet but I'm afraid it will because I too keep my foot of the brake pedal a lot more than I should

[S3XPanther]

This has always been in the back of my head once a friend of mine had something similar happen to him in his M3 a few years ago. He was at a light, light turned green, he went to take off and stalled the car. The person behind him did rear end him, but it wasn't too bad. Since then I've been paranoid, not necessarily of people hitting me because they saw my brake light turn off, but of making a mistake myself and stalling the car at a light.

Now fast forward to the day I took delivery of my car. Guess what's gnawing at me as I pull out of the dealer lot? Lol, I just prayed I got home without anyone plowing into me. Annnnd, as luck would have it, I got my ass kicked by hill assist on the way to the expressway and stalled on a pretty big hill. Fortunately, I caught the car. Also, the fact that the gentleman in the VW behind me had kept almost a complete car length behind my car helped quite a bit. My faith in humanity was restored after seeing what that dude in the VW did. Some people still know how to drive properly and are well aware that you may be driving a stick. And, if I'm honest, I think it's fair to say that a good majority of people, no matter how close they get to you, will wait for you to start moving even if the light is green and you get off your brakes. Just watch out for those hills!

[BUZZCAMARO]

Originally Posted by jewel25

I got rear ended at a redlight in an automatic. Does that count?

Me too, but I was exiting out of a private lot into a highway. The damage is so minor it can hardly be seen, not bad enough to consider trying to fix.

I started to take off than changed my mind, so the lesson learned is that when your stopped, stop and don't move 1" until your ready to launch. If you do, car behind you may turn head while moving up

[ChrisBlair]

Originally Posted by stray bullitt

Hi Chris, It was not my intention to insult "bumpkin" Americans. I am married to one,(not a bumpkin) she happens to have a masters in Mathmatics. I was just stating the way we are taught, in England to drive a manual car during our 25 to 30 hours of training. If you are rear ended, as you note, your foot WILL come off the brake pedal, which could then result in a shunt into a vehicle in front.

I pleased to learn your wife can excel in a demanding field. I'm not certain about how that impacts the discussion though...

I received that amount of driver's training as well, at 16 years old. Also I received three times that training when trained to drive a manual transmission vehicle as a major part of a profession. Any traffic citation, however small, resulted in dismissal. All accidents were considered the professional driver's fault, no exceptions.

It is an old wives' tale that your foot WILL come off the brake. My own experience in both automatic and manual transmission vehicles confirms this. I cannot say that it cannot happen but your standpoint is that it must (ie: WILL) happen, which is a much easier standpoint to refute than mine.

Are you trained to put an automatic transmission vehicle in neutral and apply your emergency or hand brake at a stop light? I simply cannot envision a nation of drivers being taught to keep their brake lights off when stopped, waiting for a red light to change. I truly feel this is negligent. This seems like a case of "we have always been taught to do this, so it must be the correct and proper way", to me. I have to strongly disagree.

Is it not possible that not illuminating the brake lights when stopped is a reason for creating a rear-end shunt situation? Surely this is logical, particularly during the daylight hours.

[metthem]

It seems this thread has a lot of people confused; it is not about rolling backwards cause you have a stick, it's about morons at lights starting to go as soon as they see the brake lights in front of them go off, and even if using the hill assist or ebrake, your brake lights will still go off (not be illuminated) as soon as you release your foot brake. On a daily basis I can be at a light and as soon as it turns green, the car behind me will start to go, not based on me moving or my brake lights going out, entirely based on the light turning green. Sometimes I will wait to go, just to make them hit their brakes, maybe piss them off, but maybe teach them a little bit too. You have to wait till the car in front of you actually moves before you can....

When I am with my daughter and we see someone at a red light texting on their phone, we will blow the horn, 9 out of 10 times they will quickly look up and start to roll, then realize the light is still red, so we continue this till they realize we are messing with them and then they usually seem to feel kinda stupid and laugh it off.