Normal braking

Braking is simply a matter of putting your right foot on the brake pedal and pressing. Good braking, on the other hand, requires a lot of skill and practise.

Your car should remain balanced as you slow down without excessive pitching (dipping at the front and rear). You can achieve this by braking early and using progressive, variable pressure on the brake pedal.

In order to start raising your awareness of the way you use the brake pedal it might help to think of the words 'ease and squeeze' when braking normally.

In fact, think of the words 'eeeeeeeeeeze and squeeeeeeeeeze' (as taught to me by an elderly retired police officer many years ago!) for really fine control of both accelerator and brakes.

Ideally, as the car comes to halt the pressure on the brake should be almost zero (in many situations, your foot will be off the brake completely).

The amount of pressure that is initially applied to the brake pedal will depend on how fast you are traveling and how soon you want to stop. As a general rule, the faster you are going, the harder you will press the brake pedal.

Three 'phases' of basic progressive braking:

1. Take up the slack

Here you simply press the brake pedal enough to 'feel' the brakes starting to bite. This also switches on the brake lights to warn following drivers.

2. More pressure

Here you apply more pressure to lose the bulk of your speed. The degree of pressure and how long you hold it will depend on your speed.

3. Ease off

Here you ease the pressure on the brake pedal, sometimes releasing it altogether. This will allow the car to 'roll' to a smooth stop.

If you find it difficult to brake progressively in everyday driving, leave a bigger gap between your car and the vehicles that you are following. Also, find a long quiet road where you can practice braking with differing degrees of pedal pressure.

Of course, things won't always go to plan, so what do you do if things go wrong?

OOPS!

So just occasionally, you're going too fast and find that you need to lose speed quickly, what do you do?

Whatever the situation, you need to get as much grip as possible as quickly as possible. This means that you can forget the finesse mentioned on the previous page.

Hit the brakes hard and fast.

Optimum grip is gained just before the wheels lock, this is why many advanced driver trainers suggest 'cadence' or 'pulse' braking (pumping the brakes) for stopping quickly and maintaining steering control. On race tracks drivers use 'threshold braking' (braking just to the limit point without locking the wheels).

In an emergency, human beings simply don't have the mechanical ability (bodily) to use cadence or pulse braking quick enough to be of practical use. Threshold braking is ideal but generally needs lots of sensitivity and practise to be done efficiently.

The best thing to do is 'slam' on the brakes and hold them - at least apply hard controlled pressure. In all modern cars this will activate the anti-lock braking system which will 'pulse' the brakes for you. If you have never experience anti-lock brakes in acrtion, take your car to a quiet road and teat them out, that way the pulsing sound won't take you by suprise inan emergency situation.

In cars without anti-lock brakes pressing the brake pedal hard will probably cause you to skid. Even though you won't have absolute maximum grip (as with threshold braking), you will be making maximum use of the available grip (not wasting it by releasing the brakes). There are issues with grip as the tyre rubber melts and lubricates the road surface but this is probably still the quickest way to stop in a straight line (see emargency braking).

If you are heading towards an obstacle, or too fast into a bend, look for the way out, slide the car in a straight line for as long as possible (while turning the steering wheel) and release the brakes at the last moment. Keep a firm grip of the wheel because the rear end of the car might object to this treatment and try to overtake the front!

Very slippery?

On ice and snow, keep your speed under control. In this instance sensitive, balanced braking will give maximum grip. Because of the extended stopping distance, you will not gain efficiency by sliding.

Anti lock braking systems and traction control systems will often improve stopping efficiency in poor conditions, but they do not offer a substitute for safe driving.