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

While usually you get good advice from Obi Wan Knievel this time the advice is bad.

In Europe where I am we call it the hand brake not the emergency brake.

When stopped at traffic lights or on a hill you can apply the hand brake and use this to hold the car prior to moving off thus preventing roll back.

It is used once the car is stopped.

In Europe we have to take a different test to drive a manual and if you do not use the hand brake correctly you will fail.

In the US they do not have a different test for a manual and hence the standard of driving of manual cars is often low as this is not taught correctly.

Obi Wan Knievel is also wrong about it just being on the rear wheels. This depends on the car. I have had one where it worked on the front wheels and my Range Rover works on the rear prop shaft just behind the gear box and not the wheels.

As long as the brake is applied once stationary it should hold the car. This is also part of the annual test here in the UK.

Using the brake correctly prolongs clutch life and prevents roll back on hill starts.

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.

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.

Handbrake How To Use

Drivers in the U.S. tend to forget to release the handbrake, and wear out the brakes by driving with the handbrake is in use, sometimes for miles before they notice that there is something wrong.

Google The Ghetto Dictionary.

That's because that is what it is intended for. The use of "drifting" from what im assuming your talking about is a development over time from the "miss use " of playing with the handbrake while driving.

The invention of the handbrake was soley designed for parking purposes.

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.

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.

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