Which is the right way to use these pedals?

[Heifzilla]

If you do long rides on quill pedals in soft soled shoes, you start feeling the vertical plates of the pedal after awhile. Of course, it depends on the shoe to some extent. A softer shoe will slip less on the pedal, but your feet will feel it more. I remember the old days of getting grooves in my sneakers from quill pedals. But when you tightened the toe straps, they did hold you in fairly effectively. Racers wore rigid soled cleated shoes with quill pedals and clips+straps. The cleat was a grooved metal plate that was nailed on the shoe and held your foot securely when the strap was tightened. Of course, you couldn't removed your foot from the pedal until you reached down and loosened the strap. [And people complain about clipless systems?!?!] With the old shoes, you rode them without the cleat until the pedal left a mark on the shoe, then you went to a cobbler and had the cleat tacked on 1/8" forward of the mark (so your toes weren't pressed against the toe clip). There were also some uncleated riding shoes that were basically sneakers with stiffeners in the sole of the forefoot to make the quill pedals more comfortable.

That's your history lesson for today, kid.

I am imagining the wipeouts as people got tangled in their bikes because they couldn't get their feet loose

[ZenSojourner]

I am imagining the wipeouts as people got tangled in their bikes because they couldn't get their feet loose

Yes, I too cannot imagine tying one's self to the bike like that.

[OakLeaf]

You'd just leave one strap loose until you got past the last stop sign in town.

Remember back in those days we used to have to reach down! to SHIFT! as well, so we were used to taking our hands off the bars. Straps had a quick-release, so it only took a fraction of a second.

[DebW]

I am imagining the wipeouts as people got tangled in their bikes because they couldn't get their feet loose

There were more people who could do track stands in those days. Unfortunately, I never learned. But I only fell over once due to forgetting to loosen the toe strap.

[Trek420]

There were more people who could do track stands in those days. Unfortunately, I never learned. But I only fell over once due to forgetting to loosen the toe strap.

Tell us your FU (failure to unclip) fall!