It's Okay for Drivers to be Shiftless

[Pete Kraus <Pete_Kraus@Emory.Org>]

Igor expresses disagreement with my assertion that manual shifting is
an unnecessary skill for today's non-enthusiast driver:
 
>I beg to differ here. In my observation the ratio of bad drivers to the
>total amount of drivers among automatics is an order of magnitude
>higher than among manuals. The lack of any mental labour involved in
>driving an automatic somehow promotes the growth of a brain-dead
>breed of drivers we see on the roads today.
>Fewer in CA, more in MD. PA being closer to MD.

>In my book automatics are evil. The manuals are not as much about
>fun as are about safety. My wife simply refuses to drive rentals during
>our vacations coz she's afraid to drive automatics. In the US one can
>not rent a stick shift unless one is renting a Ferrari in LA.

Igor, from years of observing traffic I concur with your observation that
there are frightening numbers of seemingly brain-dead drivers out there. 
Is automatic transmission to blame?  Maybe marginally, but I'd put an
awful lot of reasons ahead of it:  inadequate training;  poor testing
procedures; erratic enforcement; the near-universal popular notion that
driving is a right, not a privilege.  I suppose if you make a task harder to
perform, you can weed out a few of the dimmest sparks, but that
approach doesn't address the deeper issues.

Permit me to make a similarly marginal counter-argument for
automatics being safer than manuals.  For the perpetually nervous,
less-than-fully attentive or physically impaired driver, at least automatics
allow what attentiveness there is to be directed to the road, steering,
traffic, etc.  I don't blame you for not buying it, but there may be as
much truth to it as there is to automatics contributing to highway
brain-death.

If a case can be made for manual drivers being better, maybe it's
because people who choose manuals are fundamentally more
interested in driving.  That said, I've seen my share of scary drivers
using stick shift.

As for your wife's fear of automatics, my condolences for activities she
may be missing by not renting a car when she travels.  She sounds like
a serious, dedicated driver.  I sincerely doubt she'd change from Dr.
Jekyll to Ms. Hyde behind the wheel of something automatic.  BTW,
much to my surprise last fall I was assigned, unrequested, a 5-speed
manual Plymouth Neon at a car rental office in steamy Ft. Meyers, FL. 
Not my favorite car, but the air conditioning was faultless and they do
race 'em!

Pete
Pete_Kraus@emory.org