By ALLEN MCQUISTON
Jemez Insurance Agency
Serving Los Alamos Since 1963

You’re heading down the truck route or the main hill out of town, the road drops away in front of you, and you can feel the car wanting to pick up speed. So you do what feels natural: you ride the brake the whole way down. By the bottom, there’s a faint burning smell and the pedal feels a little soft. You made it, but something didn’t feel right about how you got there.

If you live in Los Alamos, you make this drive constantly, and the descent is steep enough and long enough that it asks something real of your car. It’s easy to treat it like any other stretch of road, right up until your brakes start telling you otherwise.

The good news is that getting down the hill safely, without cooking your brakes or white-knuckling the wheel, comes down to a few simple habits. Once you know them, the drive stops feeling like something to brace for.

Why riding the brake is the problem

Brakes work by friction, and friction makes heat. On a short stop, that heat dissipates quickly and you never notice it. But on a long descent, if you’re holding the brake the entire way, the heat has nowhere to go. It builds and builds until the brakes start to fade, which means they get less effective right when you need them most. That soft pedal and burning smell at the bottom is exactly that. You’re asking the brakes to do a job they’re not really built for.

The fix isn’t to brake harder. It’s to let the engine do most of the work instead.

Use your gears, not just your pedal

• This is the single most important habit, and most people never learned it because nobody told them they needed to.
• Shift into a lower gear before you start down, not halfway through. In an automatic, that means moving the shifter to L, 2, or using the manual/sport mode if you have it. In a manual, drop to third or even second.
• A lower gear uses engine braking to hold your speed back, so the car naturally resists picking up speed without you touching the pedal at all.
• This lets you save the actual brakes for moments when you genuinely need to slow down, like a curve or a car stopping ahead, rather than burning them up the whole way.

Brake in short, firm presses

When you do need the brake, use it deliberately. Slow down to the speed you want, then let off completely and let the engine braking carry you. A firm press followed by a release lets the brakes cool between uses, instead of holding them on continuously and never giving them a break. Counterintuitive as it sounds, intermittent braking keeps your brakes cooler and more effective than constant light pressure.

A few things that make it easier on everyone

• Pick your speed early and settle into it. Trying to go too fast and then scrubbing it off repeatedly is what gets people in trouble.
• Leave plenty of room behind the car ahead. On a downgrade, everyone needs more stopping distance, including you.
• If your brakes ever feel soft or smell hot, ease off, drop a gear, and let them recover. Don’t keep pushing.

A Few Things to Remember

The hill out of Los Alamos isn’t dangerous, but it does reward drivers who treat it with a little respect. The whole trick is to stop asking your brakes to carry the entire load. Let the engine hold you back with a lower gear, brake in short, firm presses when you need to, and give yourself room. Do that, and you’ll reach the bottom with cool brakes and steady nerves every time.

It also pays to keep your brakes in good shape generally, because a road like this finds any weakness. If your pedal feels off or you hear something new, get it looked at sooner rather than later. Brakes are one of those things you never think about until the day you really need them, and on this drive, that’s a day worth being ready for.