Should You Shift to Neutral or Keep Your Foot on the Brake at a Red Light?
1 Answers
When waiting at a red light, if the duration is relatively long, the better practice is to shift the car's gear to Neutral (N) and then engage the handbrake. Although this method is slightly more cumbersome, it significantly improves safety compared to keeping the car in a low gear. If the red light is about to turn green in just a few seconds, you can simply keep your foot on the brake while remaining in Drive (D) gear. Below is an introduction to automatic transmissions and braking: Impact of Prolonged Braking: Prolonged braking generates heat due to friction between the brake pads and brake discs. If this heat accumulates and is not dissipated in time, excessive heat can lead to a reduction in braking efficiency, affecting driving safety. Therefore, it's important to be mindful of braking duration and to regularly inspect and replace brake components. Introduction to Automatic Transmissions: An automatic transmission, as the name suggests, eliminates the need for the driver to manually shift gears. The vehicle automatically selects the appropriate gear based on driving speed and traffic conditions. Typically, an automatic transmission car has six gear positions, arranged from top to bottom as: P (Park), R (Reverse), N (Neutral), D (Drive), S (Sport), and L (Low). For general driving needs, using just P (Park), R (Reverse), N (Neutral), and D (Drive) gears is sufficient. However, specific driving conditions may require the use of other functional gears.
