Automobile pedal

An automobile may have two to four foot pedals. The arrangement is the same for both right- and left-hand traffic. From left to right:

• normally operated by the left foot:
  • clutch pedal, not in the case of automatic transmission
• normally operated by the right foot:
  • brake pedal, which is sometimes wide and elevated above the car floor
  • throttle (known as the 'accelerator' or 'gas pedal'), controls fuel and air supply to the automobile's engine. It is usually narrow and close to the car floor allowing the driver's heel to rest on the car floor. It has a fail-safe design in that it automatically returns to the idle position when not depressed by the driver.

Some vehicles have a parking brake pedal instead of a hand brake lever. Pedals can be either 'hanging' from the firewall (bulkhead) or 'standing' on the floor.

Since the right foot is normally used (for the accelerator or brake) there is no foot rest on the right, not even in cars with cruise control. The left foot only has to operate the clutch intermittently (or has no function in an automatic vehicle) so sometimes a foot rest is provided to the left of the pedals. Some drivers practice left-foot braking, however.

Many cars now include pedals with electric adjustment, a modern iteration of a manual adjustment system available sporadically since the 1950s.

Other vehicles

Heavy vehicles on caterpillar tracks such as bulldozers or tanks may have two brake pedals; for the left and right side tracks respectively. These vehicles do not have a clutch pedal but two manually operated levers - the clutches and brakes are used for differential steering.

In a bulldozer the gas pedal operates in an opposite way to an automobile; depressed pedal = idle, released pedal = full open throttle.

A twin engined wheel tractor-scraper has two gas pedals next to each other; one for the front engine and one for the rear engine.

See also

• Heel-and-toe