ABS myth

[TCJBOLDIE]

When I hear or see something like "ABS stops the brakes locking/locking up " and to me the people saying that fail to understand that the ABS only begins to operate when any wheel stops rotating while the car is moving at any speed.

During my defensive driver training days I lost count of how many times I heard that from L & P plate drivers taught by well meaning parents who had little knowledge of how the system worked and had to repeatedly send course participants to do the emergency braking exercise again and again as they were under the impression that the ABS was preventing lock up when they were not applying nearly enough brake pedal pressure to get a wheel to lock It was extremely important that all drivers feel, hear and experience the system in action as there were reports of drivers thinking that something was broken when the pedal started pulsing and taking their foot off the pedal and crashing.

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

I hasten to add that many of the older course participants had not experienced the ABS operating which in some way was a plus as they were obviously more situationaly aware and were able to apply the brakes sooner in a more controlled way as they were not in an emergency situation that required heavy pedal pressure that would activate the ABS.