6 Shoes You Should Never Wear While Driving

While you’re behind the wheel, avoid wearing faulty footwear; if not, it can be extremely dangerous. Improper footwear can result in pedaling errors. This means your foot can slip off the brake or accelerator pedal; rather, you can push the wrong pedal.

In consequence, this can lead to accidents or crashes. As a consequence, you have to keep a safe footwear option while driving a car.

To know which shoes will be perfect for you, first, you must know which shoes are most dangerous to wear while driving.

Remember your shoes have direct contact with the pedals and affect the vehicle’s movement. Without protective footwear, you should not drive any vehicles.

6 Shoes You Should Never Wear While Driving

6 Shoes You Should Never Wear While Driving

Which footwear will be appropriate for driving? Suppose you’re a delivery driver and need new shoes. But selecting shoes for delivery drivers is not an easy task. You must have excellent product knowledge to figure out the best one. But before that, you have to know which shoes you should never wear while driving. 

Here we’ve collected some of the worst shoes that you shouldn’t wear while driving- 

1. Sandals and Mules

When braking or accelerating, shoes without heel protection can cause interference. Sandals or mules can cause a slip, or they can stick under the pedal. Driving can become dangerous in these situations. They have the most possibility to come right off. This is not about sandals or mules, you need to avoid shoes that have no back. 

2. House Shoes 

If you’re thinking of driving in your slippers, then think once again because slippers can be as threatening as sandals. These types of sandals are designed for giving you comfort, not for driving vehicles. 

They didn’t give any protection around your ankle, and you can fall a slip at any time. You would not feel the proper traction as slippers are loose fit together with malleable soles. 

3. High Wedges or Platform Shoes

While driving with high wedged shoes you can feel a false sense of pressure that is applied to the brake and accelerator. This type of footwear creates issues like the other thin and tiny heels. 

Thin heels will help your feet by keeping them close to the pedals. Also, it’ll help you to evaluate how much pressure you should give to the pedals and help your feet as close as possible to the pedals. 

On the other hand, using thick-soled footwear such as wedges, platform shoes can lead you to miss pressing the pedal. Pressing two pedals simultaneously or pressing the wrong amount of pressure can be caused for this type of shoe.

4. High Heels

You can see that car pedals are designed to work effectively while your heels are on the floor. However, when you wear high heels it raises your heel and makes it more difficult to push the pedal. 

This can lead to fatigue in your ankle as well as muscle and joint pain. You should not drive in heels. Sometimes it can be confusing to judge how much pressure you need to use the brake and accelerator. 

5. Brand-New Shoes

Maybe this will be the most surprising point for you. To prevent sudden surprises, you have to reject shoes with leather or wood soles. They can be uncomfortable until they are broken in, and the soles of this type of shoes can be slippery and slick. Avoid brand-new shoes if you don’t want to create any uneasy foot-to-pedal relationship. 

6. Barefoot 

Though driving barefoot is not a good choice but better than driving in a pair of wrong footwear. Barefoot can allow you to get more control of the pedals rather than a wrong one. You can directly feel how much pressure you should give to the brake or gas pedal. 

Driving barefoot can feel different when anyone is used to going with shoes. This can be hazardous while operating a car on the road. Barefoot can differ your braking time, which can lead to a risk. So that you should avoid driving barefoot. 

Keep A Safe Shoe Option In Your Car

Keep A Safe Shoe Option In Your Car

Keeping another pair of shoes in the car can save you anytime. If you’re among those people who wear high heels, flip-flops, or unsafe shoes, it would be an excellent option to keep a safe shoe in the car.  So, keeping your second pair of footwear in your vehicle can be a great alternative. 

You can change those just before you get behind the wheel. Keep away the other pair from the footwell, so they don’t get into your foot and the pedals. The best thing is you can step into your favorite shoes again when you reach your journey’s end.

How To Choose The Best Pair Of Shoes For Driving?  

You have to follow some hints and tricks when choosing the best pair of shoes to drive in. here are a few things that your shoe should have-

  • Choose shoes that have soles that are no thicker than 10 mm for good ankle support. Remember the sole should not be too thin or soft.
  • Select shoes that have enough grip which will help you from slipping off the pedals. 
  • Don’t choose heavy shoes, they will cause wrong pressure to the pedals. 
  • When you have fully covered and secure shoes, you can easily touch the ground of the car and provide enough pressure too. 
  • Find out shoes that have a wide toe box, it’ll offer a safer pedal operation than the narrower one.

Common Driving Shoe Selecting Dos And Don’ts

Common Driving Shoe Selecting Dos And Don'ts
  • Dos 
    • If you have suede shoes for driving, clean them with steam and a brush. However, don’t get too obsessed. 
    • When you’re not wearing shoes for a long period, put tissue paper in them. Using tissue paper can keep their shape perfect but don’t use wooden trees.
  • Don’ts
    • If you walk too much, your footwear becomes loose, and then driving with them can cause issues.
    • Don’t wear socks if you are not comfortable.

Wrapping Up

There are a lot of shoes that you shouldn’t wear outside the ones mentioned above. Like cowboy boots or any large work boots can be dangerous for driving safety. While driving, you need to have a shoe with a good base and grip, which will help you give pressure to the pedals.

However, to manipulate the control, your shoes should have a certain degree of fitness.

Otherwise, you’ll press both the brake and accelerator together, which will lead to a heart-in-mouth incident. Therefore, choosing shoes for driving should be chosen carefully.

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V. Deol
I am the owner and main Editor at The Flat Feet. With a degree in PE and years of research I know how to deal with flat feet. Whether you are a baseball player, runner, nurse, etc, I feel confident to suggest you the right footwear to you.

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