Q: A few of my adult driving students from other countries are in the habit of driving barefoot. While I don’t think it’s illegal, I ask them to keep their shoes on because in an emergency requiring a quick stop, they will tend to use more force if they have shoes on. What do you think?
A: I can confirm your legal intuition; driving barefoot is not a violation of the law. Normally I’d clarify that I’m referencing Washington law, but that’s true in all 50 states. However, regular readers will recognize a recurring theme here: legal is not synonymous with good idea.
I appreciate that this is coming from a driving instructor. I’m well-versed in traffic law, but not so much the actual teaching practices at a driving school. I checked around, and many other driving instructors also recommended wearing shoes while driving, saying shoes offer better control and increase pedal grip.
I’ll point out that these are American driving instructors. I’ve never been to India, much less a driving school there, but have read that some driving instructors teach their students to drive barefoot, at least while learning, to get a better feel for the relationship between pedal movement and the response of the car. That might also be true for other places in the world, as you noted.
Who is right? Normally I’d look to crash data, but there is no box to check on the Police Traffic Collision Report for improper footwear. That suggests that either footwear isn’t a major contributor to crashes, or we’re overlooking a serious problem. I’ll guess it’s the first one. However, that doesn’t mean our footwear is irrelevant to our driving.
Our concern here is maintaining control of the vehicle and avoiding mishaps. If you live in a country (or state) where sandals are the dominant footwear (like in many warm climates), driving barefoot is probably the better choice. While drivers debate over whether going barefoot is better or worse, driving instructors consistently advise against wearing sandals and flip-flops because they can get tangled up with the pedals, along with high heels and heavy boots because it’s harder to manage the pedals.
Maybe we could look to the racing world for answers. A lot of racing practices don’t translate well to daily driving, but when things get competitive people pursue an edge. In the early days of racing drivers wore their street shoes. That changed in 1968 when a driver won the Targa Florio wearing a new pair of racing shoes. Now everyone wanted that advantage.
Racing shoes (or boots) are close-fitting with an “ultra-thin sole for superior pedal feel.” It’s as if race car drivers want shoes with a nearly barefoot experience while still being fire resistant and adding some texture for pedal grip. I haven’t found any racecar drivers clamoring for permission to drive in only their Nomex socks, so I’ll assume racing shoes are the apex (driving pun) of good driving footwear. Considering all that, we might conclude that driving barefoot is better than wearing the wrong shoes, but worse than wearing the right shoes.
While footwear itself doesn’t make the list of top crash factors, I have a theory: the kind of driver that considers their footwear is probably attentive to other safe driving practices, while people who crash wearing flip-flops or high heels also overlook other details. If I’m right, maybe a footwear-related crash isn’t just because of dangerous shoes; it might also be a dangerous driver.
So I’ll ask you all, have you given much thought to your shoes (or lack of shoes) while driving?
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