It’s a good practice to check the brakes of a car, prior to speed it up. It has been noticed that the car owners in Pakistan ignore the importance of brake lights, which often proves disastrous. Working brake lights and indicators are necessary and a lot of road accidents happen due to the lack of good braking techniques. So I decided to pen down some car-braking techniques that can come in handy when driving.
Brake Lightly
Sudden hard braking can cause the car to loose balance. When you brake suddenly, the weight of the car moves to the front, which may cause the front wheels to skid into oncoming traffic on the other lane. It’s really important to be light on the brakes. Braking lightly also gives the traffic behind, enough time to brake. A lot of accidents happen because drivers apply hard brakes. Hard braking should be done only in emergency situations.
Brake Early
Braking early gives the drivers behind you enough time to brake. When you brake early with a soft pedal, the brake lights alert the driver behind you. When approaching a stopped car or red traffic light, it is advised to start applying brakes from about 120 feet. But if you are doing speeds between 60-100km/hr you should start braking from more than 120 feet away. This distance gives you a plenty of space to brake and reduces the pressure on the brakes.
Avoid braking unnecessarily
When driving at high speeds, drivers will not expect sudden braking (except in rare cases). The faster the traffic the less time a driver has to apply brakes. Usually, when you are at high speeds, letting go of the accelerator is enough to slow you down. Braking unnecessarily at high speeds could cause traffic from behind to hit your car.
Letting go of the Accelerator pedal several seconds before applying brakes
When you let go of the accelerator, the car starts to slow down, so you need to apply less pressure on the brakes when braking. When you are approaching a red signal or a stopped car, you can let go off the accelerator and might not need to brake, as the signal might turn green as you get closer.
Pump your brakes to warn the drivers behind
Pumping your brakes is a good idea for threshold braking. Even if your car has ABS brakes and you are braking early, slightly tapping the brakes a couple of times flashes your brake lights alerting drivers behind you. ABS only kicks in when braking suddenly, which happens during emergency situations.
Steady Pressure When Braking
A good braking technique is to brake with a constant, steady pressure. At slow speeds, you can go easy on the pressure applied on the brakes. The higher the speed, the more the pressure you will need on the brakes. You will also need to apply more pressure on the brakes when going around a tight curve. Braking at steady pressure also reduces the damage on your car’s tyres and brakes.
Enough space to swerve
When you are braking behind a stopped car, try to give enough room to swerve round it. It’s a good practice to maintain enough distance from a parked car in case you might need to swerve round it in emergency.
How much was this article helpful? Do let us know in the comments section.
its strongly not recommended to tap the break when having ABS.
I had an accident a few years back in a Corolla, it had ABS and i was doing 120-140km/h and the car didnt brake well, i researched online about why my ABS didnt kick in and he told me when u press it and it starts braking you need to pump it slighly to build more pressure so that it catches well.
When you are driving, specially on high speeds, it is not a good idea to just let go of the accelerator. It slows you down without warning the driver behind you and may cause an accident. Whosoever advises to let go of the accelerator to slow down without braking is very much mistaken.
Another thing to note is to start braking while you are in a straight line, braking once you have entered a curve will slide your car.
You don’t need to pump the brakes if it has ABS. Corollas are notorious when it comes to braking – the ABS is overly cautious and doesn’t let the system apply maximum braking power. Or you had General tyres – they’re really shitty when it comes to gripping the road.
na man! – you got it wrong. you hadn’t pressed the breaks preety hard enough. the breaking of the car depends on many factors and ABS wont ensure to stop you in short distance, its only gives you to steer the car to avoid collision. its totally a myth that putting ABS can let you break well.
And the type of people who don’t even know what they experience are writing guides on PW blog.
LOL factor.
PW commenters usually know more about the topic than the writers themselves.
“Pump it to build more pressure” LOL.
When the ABS didn’t kick in you should have gone to the mechanic and ask him/her to check the ABS system. Real life is not spent online.
Not only you do not know about cars, you don’t even know about life. Why not take a break for a few years and then return to writing for PW after you become an experienced individual?
Had he read the owner’s manual he’d have known it.
Bro you lead to the wrong research. ABS never means to stop make the car break well. if depends on surface on which you are driving. e.g. car will take much longer to stop with ABS if its on a road full of pebbles.
Engine brake is not that hard that it could cause a rear end collision when normally letting go of the accelerator unless you are at a very high rpm(in which you wont be during normal circumstances).Braking part is true for non-abs cars, an abs one wouldn’t slide in a curve while braking.