I’ve seen surprise at people who don’t know how to drive a stick expressed before (here and elsewhere), and I don’t get it. Is it a regional thing? I know they’re the norm in Europe, but I’ve seen Americans tut-tutting about how kids these days don’t know how to drive, even though the majority of cars have had automatic transmissions since the 1960s.
I don’t see how being left-handed would weaken the distinction, but I can see how being ambidextrous or cross-dominant might. It’s an interesting idea.
Not poppycock. It’s a real phenomenon, thought to be related to spatial reasoning skills, and I kind of like the idea that there’s a relationship to absence of preferential handedness. Suppose I asked you a directly equivalent question: which is the port and which is the starboard side of a ship? Unless you’re a nautical type, you might have to think about it or even have to look it up. And even after looking it up, you might find it hard to remember without some kind mental cue. Perhaps because you don’t have a handedness preference entrenched in that context, like “I always write with my starboard hand”.
OK, but how does she figure out which one is her right hand? 
I would argue that driving a stick is a “skill” rather than “knowledge” as in knowing a fact. But I think the premise is correct – you’re not a full-fledged driver if you don’t know how to drive a manual transmission, and if such a person has a license at all it should be marked as restricted so that they’re not inclined to try without proper supervision. So what if most cars have automatics? Many don’t. It may not be too long before operating a car consists of telling it your destination and pressing a button marked “Go”. Is such a person a qualified driver?
The premise isn’t that it’s a possibly-useful skill, but that it’s unexpected for anyone not to have that skill. And it’s something I’ve seen expressed several times, from people in a part of the world where it hasn’t been the normal way people drive for half a century. I was wondering if there was some kind of regional distribution that explained this, like that 60% of cars sold in Idaho or wherever are sticks, so people there just assume it’s a universal skill.
Yeah, it’s a small horse–but ‘pony’ isn’t really a well-defined term, because you have small horses that care called ‘ponies’ and small horses that are called ‘minis.’
I think it’s a bit simpler than that.
Like knowing how to milk a cow, manual transmission skills were once almost universal in the population and are now rather rare. So the oldsters like to complain about what the youngsters have lost. You don’t hear 20-somethings whining that nobody knows how to stick it. Not even among 20-something stick drivers.
The other thing is that drivers by preference separate themselves into two groups: A) Enthusiasts who think manuals are the Right Way to drive and use ignorant now-40-years-obsolete slang disparaging terms for automatics. And B) the rest of us who may enjoy driving but don’t need to make it 80% more effort for 1% more gain.
The former small minority group whines loud and long about how the latter benighted majority is Doing It Wrong. In return the benighted majority shrugs and yawns. It was ever thus in human society.
Bottom line: the distribution you’re looking for is (almost entirely) generational and attitudinal, not geographical.
The shortening sure confuses me. “Quarter of seven” to me sounds like either 6:15 or 7:15. Had I not read it on here I’d never know it means 6:45.
Self-labeled, fraudulent enthusiasts do that for sure. A true enthusiast knows that a modern manual transmission is inferior to just about every automatic transmission available, but chooses to drive a manual for his own personal driver engagement.
But yeah… we can make this post fit the thread, because I am shocked at the number of people who don’t’ know that old automatic transmissions were wasteful and inefficient (Two gears! Lots of slip/losses! Slushbox!) but that modern automatics are so efficient and responsive (and often pack more gears than manuals now)… plus they are computer controlled… they are just the best option in almost all cases for almost all drivers if true performance and efficiency are desired.
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I agree. For the record, I dislike manual transmissions and think that in the vast, vast majority of cases they are a pain, especially in city driving and stop-and-go traffic. I don’t even like dual-clutch automatics like BMW’s M-DCT because I’d rather have the smoothness of a hydraulic torque converter and I’d probably never use it in manual mode anyway.
I’m just saying that a proper driver should know how to drive a stick and if he can’t demonstrate competence, his license should be legally restricted to “automatics only” in the interest of his own safety and everyone else’s in the same way that you would need an endorsement to ride a motorcycle or a large vehicle with air brakes. I don’t want one of these jerks rolling down on me because he borrowed Junior’s stick-shift hot rod and doesn’t know how to start on a grade, or runs somebody down because he’s not used to having a clutch.
I’ll disagree with “proper driver”. How good are you at operating a manual spark advance? Or a non-syncromesh manual tranny? Me neither FTR; I’m not trying to play all superior here. Those were once essential skills that are vestigial at best now.
As to restricted licenses for auto-only drivers …
Agree 100% about the valid need for restrictions for motorcycles, large trucks, etc.
In fact I’d even do something about the many RVs and busses carefully designed with massive rear overhangs to keep the wheelbase juuuust within the legal definition for “no special license required”. Too many times I’ve nearly been swatted by folks driving their Winnebago as if it was a Corolla. IMO The wheelbase limit regs ought to be augmented with overhang limits or overall vehicle length limits. And then require a “long-vehicle” exam, practical test, and license endorsement before somebody could drive one.
The good news is the hard part of driving a stick is starting out. As such auto-only drivers operating manual cars is a pretty much self-limiting problem. If they can get it going at all they can drive it well enough.
As to stopping … For years I had one car of each type. And switched back and forth a lot. Do you know what happens if, when driving a manual, you forget that fact and need to stop? Answer: You step on the brakes and the car slows to a stop. Sure it bucks alarmingly just as the engine quits at 5 mph. But it stops just fine. I’ve proven that many times. :smack:
YMMV.
What’s worse is forgetting you’re driving an automatic, and slamming on the brakes trying to push the clutch in.
There is no reason a “proper driver” should know how to drive a manual transmission car, any more than they should know how to drive a motorcycle. Sticks are becoming increasingly rare (at least in North America) and a person can very easily go their entire life and never need this skill.
That’s how it works in Finland - if you learn with an automatic and do your driver’s test with an automatic, you’ll get a driver’s licence that is valid only for automatics.
Which raises the question: how common are manuals amongst all Finnish cars? And how is that percentage changing in recent years?
Did this once on a drive to Vegas with my then-wife and father-in-law. After being on the road for a couple of hours using cruise control, I hit an off-ramp so we could get food. And promptly forgot I was in a rental car. And gave us all a pretty jarring experience which was the source of ribbing the rest of the trip.
I was test driving a car for my mom, getting on the freeway. The car salesman was horrified.
Hmm, quick googling says roughly 1/3 of new cars are automatic right now. AFAIK the numbers are going up, back when I learned how to drive in late 90s nobody I knew had an automatic.
There are people who are surprised our chickens lay eggs despite no male bird being present.
They’ll also tell you chickens can’t fly.
I can’t think of any definition of ‘horse’, where ponies (certain breeds of Equus ferus caballus) don’t count as small ones.