Is ABS disadvantage in stop and go traffic ?

I heard somewhere that ABS cause the brakes to be hard even for low speed breaking.
ie., they work effectively(only when pressed hard) even when you are going in Slow city traffic.

Is it true ?

Does that mean ABS can cause leg pains when driving in a lot of Stop and Go Traffic ?

Hi,

No it is NOT true. to my understanding that the ABS will monitor the Speed and Breaking force and will come in to operation when the speed is high  and also the Break force  .

The breaks are Power assisted and you will never feel the  pressure or Pain in the Leg.

There is no co relation between traffic and ABS.

It kicks in only on sudden braking when car has a tendency to skid.

ABS ( Antilock brake system) work only in case of sudden braking. it doesn't work in normal traffic stops.

Also ABS is helpful in avoiding accidents. How it allows you to steer the wheel even while braking and you can avoid head on collision with obsticle. Brake in ABS system lock and unlock the whell disc at very high frequency allowing gaps when brake pads are not holding the discs.

I asked this question because till now in my limited driving experience, I have driven only non ABS cars.

Few days back I took Test Drive of Ritz.
During TD, at a point I had to break as a car was crossing in front of me from left cut. I was at speed of 30kmph before breaking.
I applied break as I normally do in other cars, but still the vehicle did not stop completely.
It was still slowly rolling towards the crossing car. Thankfully the Salesman who was on passenger seat applied Handbrake just on time.

That time I did not understand why it happened (vehicle did not stop completely on applying brakes in a normal way). Then later on I remembered that my TD vehicle was Ritz ZXI which has ABS.
So I definitely felt a difference in breaking even at smaller speeds, so asked this question.

Then why did the Ritz I test drove did not stop completely when I applied breaks at normal force at low speed (30 kmph)?

Assuming the ABS system is properly designed and working correctly, you'll never notice the car has it unless a wheel starts sliding.

It's hard to say why you had problems with the brakes because there are lots of possibilities.  I can think of a few:

Brake system malfunction or defect.

The car had only been driven a little if at all, new brakes sometimes feel very strange until they break in.

The car sat unused for a while and the brakes got covered in rust.  Brake disks and drums are normally made of steel (or possibly cast iron for drums), so they get rusty when they sit.  Surface rust on the brakes makes them less effective.  Using them will clean the rust off.  You can clean off rusty brakes quickly by braking hard a few times.

The Ritz's brake pedal just feels different than what you are accustomed to.  It always throws me off a bit when I drive a car for the first time, especially if it's a brand I'm not used to.  For a long time all I ever had were Ford products.  The pedals in other makes always felt strange.  It bothered me a lot more when I was a new driver.

It takes some time get used braking in an ABS equipped car. Once you get use to it, you will always ask for an ABS equipped car in your next buy.

Methinks it is only an issue of a different feel in Ritz. A new driver - one taking a test drive, does not know the vehicle intimately, and is distracted by so many new inputs while taking the test drive. Unless the car had defective or maladjusted brakes (very very unlikely for a demo car - you would lose a customer in the blink of an eye!) there was no technical reason why the car would not stop.

ABS has nothing to do with it, it would never give the feel of continuing to roll - the automatic pumping is very fast, and instead of coming to a skidding halt, you would have a firm brake application halt, provided you had pushed enough for the pads to engage fully.

It could be judgement error. As not very familair with Ritz braking efficeiency