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I've driven manuals for over 40 years. I started with a VW Rabbit 4 speed. I drive a 5 speed Mazda. And I'm a left handed woman; it was an exercise in faith to learn to shift right-handed so I understand the scaredy cats out there.
Today I'd be Afraid to drive an automatic. To me it's not driving, merely steering.
How do I drive my 5 speed? Intelligently.
Years ago I had an old, right hand drive MG which was imported from England by someone in the military that was stationed there. So, I had to learn how to shift with my LEFT hand. It wasn't difficult like you might think, but I already had cars that were manual previously. The clutch is the part that hangs most people up anyway.
About a third of the world's drivers shift with their left hand and most of them are right handed. So I'm not sure that is a big accomplishment. I actually heard some Australians argue that right hand side driving is better than left hand side because your dominant hand should be on the steering wheel, not the stick. Which makes absolutely zero sense to me, but I guess if someone has driven that way their entire life, they might think it's the best way.
Makes perfect sense.
Which control is more likely to save you from a fatal accident, your gear selector, or your steering? So which control should your dominant hand be on?
Now sure in a manual your dominant hand might only be on the gear select for a couple of seconds before returning to both hands on the wheel (because that's good driving practice), but with right handedness being predominant dominance, a RHD statistically needs your dominant hand to be less away from steering, than LHD.
Further, neurologically a left foot/left hand shift needs less brain coordination its limited to the right hemisphere, left foot/right hand needs cross hemisphere coordination since it uses both hemispheres. While under normal conditions this is a non-issue, during periods of extreme mental stress (like just before a potential accident) it can reduce your mental reaction time, which makes coordinated considered responses slower, which is clearly less optimal.
I've driven manuals for over 40 years. I started with a VW Rabbit 4 speed. I drive a 5 speed Mazda. And I'm a left handed woman; it was an exercise in faith to learn to shift right-handed so I understand the scaredy cats out there.
Today I'd be Afraid to drive an automatic. To me it's not driving, merely steering.
How do I drive my 5 speed? Intelligently.
Well, with an automatic, in addition to steering, you have to brake and accelerate.
Which control is more likely to save you from a fatal accident, your gear selector, or your steering? So which control should your dominant hand be on?
Now sure in a manual your dominant hand might only be on the gear select for a couple of seconds before returning to both hands on the wheel (because that's good driving practice), but with right handedness being predominant dominance, a RHD statistically needs your dominant hand to be less away from steering, than LHD.
Further, neurologically a left foot/left hand shift needs less brain coordination its limited to the right hemisphere, left foot/right hand needs cross hemisphere coordination since it uses both hemispheres. While under normal conditions this is a non-issue, during periods of extreme mental stress (like just before a potential accident) it can reduce your mental reaction time, which makes coordinated considered responses slower, which is clearly less optimal.
Steering is the easy part, the gear shift is more complicated. I drive an automatic now, but from habit of driving a manual, I still drive primarily with my left hand at 8 o'clock, and keep my right hand free to mess with the radio or the heat, or whatever else I want to be doing with it.
In high speed chases, cops are trained to drive with their left hand at 12 o'clock, and their right hand on the radio microphone. I personally don't think that is a good way of driving. If it was up to me, they wouldn't even be allowed to drive that way. But since they are allowed, it proves that it can be done. If cops can drive high speed in very challenging conditions with just their left hand on the wheel, then I'm more than confident steering with my left hand in normal driving. Oh and if left handed steering was really a problem, I'm sure they would relocate the radio microphone in police cars to the left of the steering wheel. But apparently they haven't found any reason to do that.
So steering with the left hand and doing the more complicated stuff with your right hand is the way to go.
My parents and older siblings all learned to drive in a manual and then drove a manual for years. All of them switched to automatic eventually. Reason given? Convenience. They all live in the city and its just less of a hassle.
A manual transmission controlled by an experienced and competent driver can make for a more athletic and satisfying driving experience, but thats not really peoples main concern when 90% of the driving they do is in rush hour on busy roads.
I’m left handed and can drive a manual with no problem, boy i can’t believe the number of pages on this simple driving skill. Manuals have been around a long time, its sad that people don’t want to drive them anymore, we are turning into a lazy drivers society and want to just hit the gas or brake pedal. Like others have said a manual today is the best anti theft device on a vehicle and that’s sad to me. All i can say is that if you drive a manual now and god forbid you have a medical emergency and need someone else drive you to the ER and they can’t drive a manual than you are screwed. I know call 911 but not everyone has a cell phone.
I grew up on manual left hand gear changes in the UK, so it's no big deal at all to swap left or right hand drive, manual or automatic.
However, if the pedals were reversed too that would make it very difficult.
What I've gotten out of this thread is that driving a manual is unsafe because it's too hard for the OP to learn. So, because he/she thinks it's too complicated, then that equates to it being outdated and unsafe.
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