On Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:37:11 -0400, James Silverton
> wrote:

>On 6/12/2014 2:20 PM, Ophelia wrote:
>>
>>
>> "Brooklyn1" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> Nancy Young wrote:
>>>> sf wrote:
>>>>> Julie Nilsen wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hey there! You haven't answered why you think California says it is
>>>> >okay to talk on your cell phone while driving as long as you use a
>>>> > hands-free device. Can you tell us why you think they allow it if your
>>>> >'studies' say that it is just as dangerous???
>>>>>
>>>>> I live in California. It's not against the law (so far) to talk hands
>>>>> free although it has been proven to be a distraction. Smoking in
>>>>> public was also allowed... until it wasn't. <shrug>
>>>>
>>>> It would be impossible to enforce, if nothing else.
>>>> Surely people don't think that having a phone in one hand is
>>>> the distraction making people drive through red lights and
>>>> all the other stuff we see?
>>>
>>> Conversing, whether via phone or with passengers, s one of the most
>>> common reasons people drive through stop signs and red lights. Smoking
>>> requires zero consious thought, no more than chewing gum.
>>>
>>>> They'd ban stick shifts, too, if that was the problem.
>>>
>>> Not nearly the same thing... once learned driving stick is like riding
>>> a bicycle or swimming, requires no more consious thought than
>>> breathing... takes more consious thought to urinate than drive stick.
>>> You obviously don't drive stick. It took me a long time getting used
>>> to an automatic transmission... there are still occasions when I catch
>>> myself going for the clutch to downshift. I'm driving automatic only
>>> 24 years, I learned with stick and drove only stick for more than 30
>>> years.
>>
>> I have two cars now, one with stick and one auto. One never forgets.
>> If someone here passes a test with an auto, they have to take another
>> test for stick gears. Having taken a test for a stick gear, no new test
>> for auto is required.
>>
>I learned to drive with a stick but most times when we went to Europe
>and rented such a manual car, there were about two hours of missed
>shifts and stalls. These usually seemed to occur in large cities; I
>particularly remember embarrassment in Zurich and Paris :-)

Then you never learned to drive stick.