Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions

Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by lb1lf on Thursday November 17, 2016 @03:12AM (#12975434)

In Norway, too, we have the same restriction. I think I've driven a manual transmission car once or perhaps twice since my driver's test.

As for eco-driving, I was told in no uncertain terms by the guy who examined me that if I tried to drive as eco-friendly as the official course material suggested, he'd fail me for being a hazard to other traffic.

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by _nalply on Thursday November 17, 2016 @03:40AM (#12975578)

That's because you'll prefer to run over pedestrians crossing the street so you don't have to break and waste kinetic energy. </irony>

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by lb1lf on Thursday November 17, 2016 @05:51AM (#12976265)

-That only works for children; adults have too large a moment of inertia for this technique to be effective.

Seriously, his (valid, IMHO) point was that driving eco-friendly was all well and good when conditions allowed (A distinction not being made by the training manual) - but when interacting with other drivers, accelerating slowly, for instance, would often mean you could never (legally) enter a road where you're required to yield.

The Norwegian definition of yield being that you should in no way impede on the operation of the car with right of way - in theory, if you're entering a road with right-of-way and a driver already on it has to ease up on the throttle pedal even for an instance to maintain safe distance, you're breaking the law.)

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by theluketaylor on Thursday November 17, 2016 @03:36PM (#12981251)

That's everyone's definition of yield, just most drivers are horrible at estimating how long it will take them to properly join the flow of traffic (or they just plain don't care they are cutting someone off)

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by _nalply on Thursday November 17, 2016 @01:11PM (#12979840)

Interesting. I'll have too look up what the Swiss road law says about this.

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by _nalply on Thursday November 17, 2016 @01:23PM (#12979943)

I looked up. Art. 36 para. 4 SVG says: «The driver [...] is not allowed to impede other users of the road [...]», however I don't know what «impede» does exactly mean. Since I often experience that I have to adapt my speed because someone entered the road rather tightly, I think the Swiss are more lax about this. You only «impede» if the other one really has to hit the brake. Maybe.

https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classified-compilation/19580266/... (German)

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Re:Fewer than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transm... by Symbiote on Thursday November 17, 2016 @03:57AM (#12975672)

In Britain, eco-driving isn't a requirement of the test, but the examiner has to comment on it afterwards.

He told me I was a bit slow changing gears, but fine at anticipating when I'd need to stop.

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