Why don't they teach proper use of handbrake in the USA?

Cause we drive american muscle not drift cars

The parking / emergency brake has only two proper uses: Parking and emergencies. It was never designed for use in normal driving, that's what the regular brakes are for. The parking brake only applies the rear brakes, making it unsafe for regular use. It's great for racing, stunt driving or doing a 180 in an empty parking lot, but none of those are legal on public roads. A car will stop much more evenly and slowly when all four brakes are engaged, and the majority of the braking work is done by the front wheels which are unaffected by the parking brake. The parking brake also bypasses the antilock system, making it much less reliable as a means of controlling the vehicle. Manual or automatic transmission makes no difference, because the parking brake was neither designed nor intended for use in regular driving. If your driving instructor taught you otherwise, your instructor was wrong.

The driving school I go to taught me to use it for a hill start.

Most North American drivers today are taught to drive in cars with automatic transmissions. For those cars, you do not need to use the E-brake other than when parking the vehicle. Actually you don't even need to use the E-brake at that time but it is good practise. For those that are taught to drive a manual, the instructor will show ( or at least should show ) the pupil the proper use of the E-brake for starting on a hill. I know I was.

So, Singapore is monitoring the USA Drivers Education classes? Here, we call it the emergency brake and it is taught. They are taught that it primarily is used as a parking brake, but can be used in the event of a primary brake failure. Most vehicles here use a foot actuated emergency/parking brake. Hand brakes are in cars that, by design, do not have adequate foot room to support a foot actuated parking/emergency brake.

Not all vehicles have a hand brake. In manual transmission cars you simply heel-and-toe if you need to start on a hill. You DO know how *drive* heel-and-toe, don't you, instead of using the parking brake? I hope you know how to double cutch and don't just jam the gears in when decelerating!

I did not know it has any other purpose. 95% of all cars sold in the U.S. have automatic transmission drive. 2011 year was 97.2% of usa cars sold, though it may be back on the rise. I never drove a stick shift and that is the only purpose I know. My car hand brake is a foot pedal. There is no hand brake in my car. A CVT car (Continuous Variable Transmission) gets the same gas mileage as a manual transmission. Looked it up. Hand Brake, called a Parking Brake in the USA, #1 purpose is parking on a hill or for manual transmission parking. #2 purpose is an emergency brake in case of failure in the main braking system. The handbrake turn you refer to http://www.flixxy.com/fifth-gear-handbrake-turn-lessons.htm is for stunts mostly, and can stall the engine on manual transmission rear wheel drive cars. Adding: On public roads, driving in that way can be ticketed as reckless driving in most of the US states. With your add, I am correct. There are so few manual transmission cars in the United States, very few people bother with using the hand brake and most of the time, they use two feet on gas and brake in the start on the hill where necessary. Combining manual transmission and a city with a lot of hills is bad news. Too many accidents occur. Suburu 2013 BRZ has CVT Automatic and 6 speed manual transmission, and the automatic is equal or better in gas economy http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/PowerSearch.do?action=noform&path=1&year1=2013&year2=2013&make=Subaru&model=BRZ&srchtyp=ymm Add closer: Singapore price of gasoline averages US$6.51 per US gallon and here in Las Vegas is US$3.25 now. Your gasoline is priced double after costs and taxes.

I hope you don't mean like in the Rockford files, like near end of this clip

The handbrake on my sports car has been modified with the addition of a clip that disables the latching button. This feature is utilized for 'spirited' driving sessions up the valley road. And I frequently drive a friends car that has dual handbrakes (one for each rear wheel); I'm still working on mastering his technique. I have taken offensive / defensive driving courses in the past that cover all aspects of the proper and improper use of the lowly handbrake. And I have passed this knowledge on to my 3 boys while teaching them the finer points of driving after they took driver's ed. The reverse handbrake turn is one of my favourites.