I couldn’t help myself but write a quick blog and re-spread the news that manual transmissions still exist on our roads today!

Manual transmissions have been used in our automobiles since the 1890’s and in fact it was the only way to drive a car by physically engaging a clutch while changing the gears of the transmission. It was not until the late 1940’s a true automatic transmission was built where you didn’t have to change gears and all the work was done for you.

Ever since the automatic transmission was introduced people started to gravitate to the fact that there was no third clutch pedal that you had to engage while changing the gears by hand.  It is actually quit sad that in this day and age many people have no idea that manual transmissions even exist never mind knowing how to drive them! Over the majority of our drivers have automatic transmissions ignoring or “forgetting” the fact that there are still manual transmissions on the roads.

The reasoning why I was eager to write this blog was because I have been recently experiencing more people getting closer and closer to my rear end! Manual transmission or automatic…there should ALWAYS be a car length space cushion between vehicles!  I was travelling to work the other day and came to a stop at a set of traffic lights where there was a slight hill. Typically, when there is a manual transmission
vehicle on a hill it will roll back slightly before moving forward…well apparently not everyone knows this. The car behind me stopped right on my be-hind not leaving me much room as I could tell by seeing half the hood of the car and the driver in my rear-view mirror. Thankfully my skill level of a standard transmission isn’t beginners as I had to rev my engine higher than normal and pop my clutch out so I would barley roll back missing the car behind me. It is not healthy in any way shape or form for a manual transmission unless you’re a race car driver and have a money tree in your back yard, as this is what us standard drivers call “riding” your clutch.

It wasn’t long after that I had another similar encounter of someone being too close to my rear end when I was making a left hand turn in the intersection where I was slowly creeping up to see what traffic was coming. Well the funny part of this story was the person behind me actually got it…there was a manual transmission vehicle in front of me that rolls back slightly before moving forward so I better give more room…which she did, by reversing in the intersection to leave me enough room behind me.

Now I would never advise anyone to back up in an intersection because you were too close. I do my best to tell other drivers my car is standard by rolling back slightly before they stop behind me so they can leave me the room I need but I really shouldn’t need to do this. The room should be there if I drive a manual or an automatic transmission.

The moral of this story is simple; leave a car length of space between you and the car in front of you just in case it happens to be a manual transmission so they don’t need to kill their clutch nor e-brake because you were being too inconsiderate of other vehicles. Especially now that winter weather is just around the corner us manual drivers need the room to get going. There isn’t many of us manual drivers on the road today but believe me speaking from a point of view of a standard driver we would appreciate the space
to move forward as would you so we don’t roll back into you!