Park Button

The car can roll back/forth a few inches, when just restrained by the Park mechanism. Maybe not the best. If you're on any amount of slope it only gets worse. Also, it'll be confusing to people behind you, since you're showing brake light, then not.

 

A slight possibility of premature wear on the parking pawl / pin that engages. I would be worried about somebody slamming into the back of me because I had no stop lights on. It would be their fault but you still would have a wreck to contend with, plus they might push you into traffic....

 

If you were to get rear ended while engaged in Park, there is a chance that the parking prawl could break from the force of the collision and your car would freely lurch forward into the car in front of you or the moving traffic. The parking prawls seem pretty strong in general for all cars and I haven't personally experienced a situation first hand from myself or friends where one failed. But accidents are just that... accidents, you never know when one will happen. Weigh the risks and it's up to you to decide.

If you want to give your foot a rest at a stop light from depressing the brake, why not just use the emergency brake instead? But using the emergency brake would still not engage the rear brake lights and could cause a driver who isn't paying full attention to what's in front of them (your car) and think you are in motion when you really are in a slowing or stopped condition.

 

Really?
Really?

I've never been at a stop light that was so long as to feel just using the brake was fine.

Any imagined or chimerical benefits putting the vehicle in park, while sitting in active traffic one might feign to imagine are not worth the risk.

Just use the brake. It's called PARK because it's intended to be used if you are parking.

 

Mechanical problem, NOT.
I do the same than you do. In between red lights in light traffic. I feel relaxed...............

 

I usually press "Park" and engage the parking brake on a railway crossing, long freight train, but never on a traffic light.

 

I've engaged Park at the lights once or twice, but then get egg on my face when the lights go to green and I floor it and the car doesn't move. Then mess about for a couple seconds engaging drive and setting off before someone blasts their horn at me

 

I use Park when stopped in traffic due to an accident or when in the drive-through line at the pharmacy. Or a train and things of that sort, not just for a traffic light.

 

Really, people, it's not important.

I've tried Park at lights a few times, but didn't like the counterintuitive silliness of having to step on the brake (as well as shift to "D") in order to go forward. (Yes, I know why the lawyers require that, but it's still an inconvenient waste of my time.)

 

Mechanically there's not much there.
You shouldn't have any more problems than normal.
I've got 83,000 miles on my car and I very rarely use the park button, since turning the car off places it into park.
I know some of our drivers who use the button regularly when leaving the car running while visiting remote sites.

I've never heard of anybody breaking a parking pawl in a Prius, and it's seems highly unlikely since the car will not allow itself to be shifted into park while the vehicle is moving fast enough to damage the paw.

As far as the OP's driving technique....well that's been discussed.
I live where it's nice and flat, and I'm blessed to live in a fairly small town, so pressing the brake pedal 2-3 times a day while at a stop light really doesn't seem like much of a chore.
Americans really need to be MORE connected to the driving task, not less, but that's a different discussion for perhaps a different thread, maybe in a different forum.

Good Luck!

BTW.....maybe a Thighmaster to build up some tone in those legs?

 

I'm not so sure. The Park button is designed to be used normally very rarely, say once per trip. Hitting the Park button frequently at red lights is a big increase, in usage, and shifting.

 

i don't see a problem, unless you do what grumpy and i have done in the past.

 

Its more of a safety issue. Not having your brake lights on when stopped some idiot may run into you and claim they didn't realize you where stopped. Its like people to dumb to have their lights on running in the rain. They think they can see ok but don't realize people can't see them. like not using you turn signal. People are just Lazy now days. It just takes to much effort to drive safe.

 

If I'm behind someone at red light, and they're brake light goes off, I think they're starting.

 

You could engage the brake pedal with your other foot and flex the one you normally use.

 

i see a lot of people taking their foot off the brake at red lights momentarily. especially in a long line. i don't gun it up there wazoo, i wait and move at the same speed they do.

 

After switching to a Prius we really get abused and we don't get respect on the roads at all lol I had a G35 flip me the bird and cut me. But when I had my Subaru STI man everyone was saying hi to me lol

 

Isn't the parking pawl stronger than the parking brake?

The parking brake can be overridden by simple engine power, but the parking pawl remains locked even when the whole car is dragged out of parking spaces by tow trucks. Plus, the front wheels (parking pawl) have a heavier load, thus greater braking traction than the rear wheels (parking brake). And the front-rear load difference will increase when the car is struck from behind, the same as during normal braking.

Does that also cause confusion if manual transmission drivers release their brake on flat ground, at a time when cars are not starting up?

Yours requires you to step on the brake again? I don't recall mine requiring such. The brake needs to be pushed once at startup before the car can move, but I thought it could subsequently return to D without the brake. Maybe it is time to recheck.

 

Unfortunately some of that goes on. But it works both ways. I used to drive some nice cars for a chauffeur job I one did and I was amazed at the diferent reaction people would give you depending on the car you drive. If I was trying to turn right out of a particularly difficult junction (your left) in a £250k car, I'd regularly get flashed out by glamorous blondes in flash BMW or Mercedes cars and then given a smile and a little wave. Try that same junction in something less flash and I'd be there for hours trying to get out. Where were my blonde friends then?

What does that prove? I do not know? Maybe flashy blondes only like rich men? Maybe they just object to old Fords? Maybe I just looked damn good in the flash car? But what you drive can attract the wrong attention sometimes.