You can't lift the parking brake of the cruiser in the desert, the option isn't in the cruisers controls.
First off, which cruiser. Did you try the P button? [EDIT] Welp, it was the biggest one and the parking brake indeed doesn't work.
In addition to this, if you enter a vehicle with the parking break on, and then leave the vehicle without turning it off, the [P] icon continues to blink, even after entering another vehicle.