American woman living in Sydney reveals she NEVER uses handbrake when parking

A US woman living in Australia has revealed she never puts the handbrake on when she parks her car.

The American driver known as Brit made the surprising claim in a now viral TikTok, and admitted she was shocked Sydney motorists relied on the brake so heavily.

‘If you’re American, do you use the parking brake when you drive? Or when you park, I suppose?’ she said in the video.

‘Because I’ve never used one in my entire life. But I think everyone uses them in Australia.

‘And my boyfriend asks me to drive and I have to look at it and say ”Is it on? I don’t know”.’

She captioned the video: ‘They’re so safe here I love it’ but copped an onslaught of criticism from fellow TikTokkers.

‘How did you get a license to drive here? Handbrake use is in the driving test, you either get ticked or failed on it,’ one commenter said.

‘The car literally rolls away if we don’t,’ said another.

‘Yeah if you want to find your car where you left it,’ someone added.

Another said they were ‘flabbergasted’ every time they heard an American person say they don’t use a handbrake.

Brit later clarified that cars ‘are not just rolling away’ in the US, and said the parking brake was only used if the driver stopped on a hill.

She added once the car is put in park, it didn’t need the handbrake on.

‘When you put it in park, you can lean on it, you can push it, it doesn’t roll anywhere,’ she said in another video.

‘We don’t need to put the parking brake on unless you’re on a really steep hill – that’s what we’re taught.’

But many were still unconvinced.

‘Using the park break not only is a failsafe it’s to take away stress and strain from your gearbox/transmission,’ one commented.

‘My sister literally got run over by her own car. It was parked without the hand brake on,’ said another.