Who drives a stick shift in san francisco?

[ohhwanderlust]

Regularly? A masochist.

I did learn how to drive manual in SF though. I figured the challenge would learn me well.

[existant]

Props to anyone who can do it comfortably. There's no way in hell that I'd try. I didn't even feel comfortable in an automatic, with the car behind right on my ass, honking their horn because I didn't hit the gas quick enough on a green light. I only drove in SF for a few hours and that's the only time in my entire life that I was honked at for that reason.

[sonarrat]

When I lived in South San Francisco and visited the city on a semi-regular basis, I drove a stick. It's actually much easier to handle, say, starting on a wet incline compared with a front-wheel drive automatic, which has a good chance of spinning the wheels when you step on the gas. With a stick, you just use your parking brake and load up the power gently as you release the brake.

It wasn't until I moved to San Jose that all the clutching became a hassle, having to deal with freeway metering lights for 10+ minutes a day.

[Bulldogdad]

Gt390.

Jjz109.

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by blackgem

Thanks for your feed back.
I forgot to ask
What are some of the techniques you use in San Fran going up and down steep hills?
Any accidents?
Did you go out and practice during very late hours?

Emergency brake is always an option. If you're worried about rolling back on a steep hill, just pull the ebrake. Slip the clutch a bit slower than normal and when you feel the weight shift forward and start pulling against the ebrake release it. It's not hard to do at all. Stop a little farther back from the car in front of you and let it start moving a bit so you don't have to worry about trying to creep forward. It's not really that hard. I'm driving an automatic now but primary consideration was gas mileage. If they made a stick that got similar mileage I'd still be driving a stick. Only thing that came close was diesels though and at the time I didn't look at them as diesel prices were still much higher.

It gets annoying during rush hour period, hills make it slightly moreso. Eg, some of the on-ramps out of San Francisco are up long hills to reach them. If you're trying to leave downtown you'll spend 30 minutes or so moving forward one car length at a time. That's just annoying regardless of hills or no hills although more annoying on hills. The extra annoyance of a manual never really affected my decision to drive or not. I avoid driving in downtown San Francisco as much as possible either way during rush hour as it's just miserable.