Quote:
Originally Posted by Thymeclock
Have you ever been to N.Y. City? Have you ever driven a car here? This is relevant to the discussion. I once spent some time driving in California and was amazed how you folks on the left coast piss and moan about how bad the traffic is there. You have mostly four-lane highways and no 'bottlenecks'. That's a piece of cake compared to where I am from. Traffic? Compared to what? I'm sure the traffic in Pusiwallop Washington is nothing compared to Manhattan, or the Bronx, or Brooklyn, or even Queens.  |
I'd be lying if I said all of Seattle was as bad as New York, but there are certainly areas that are close if not as bad. Seattle is a very narrow strip of land bordered by a lake and the sound which definately creates bottlenecks.
According to:
Worst traffic cities of 2010 - latimes.com
New York's traffic has more hours of congestion per week, but during those hours of congestion, the average speeds are slightly faster than Seattle/Tacoma.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thymeclock
If shifting "doesn't really use the clutch up", then a clutch should last forever, right? What nonsense. The more anything involving friction is used, the faster it wears out. "Keep it rolling?" Try doing that at an intersection with one of our newly installed red-light cameras. Summonses are issued by data from road sensors, still and video cameras - with all three in active use - that show anything over 0 MPH recorded at the stop line.:
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Shifting is the act of changing from one gear to the next. While shifting, there is very little torque being applied to the clutch and thus very little wear. Nearly all of the wear will be while you slip the clutch starting from a stop.
I'm not advocating running red lights or stop signs, it's not safe and you'll get nailed by red-light cameras here too. I'm just saying try to keep it rolling while waiting for other cars to clear the stop sign or while waiting for the light to turn green.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thymeclock
Don't insinuate that I ride a clutch, or ride the brakes. I know better than to do that, but I have no way of proving to you that I don't, nor what traffic is like here. Until you move here and operate a vehicle under the traffic conditions that prevail your comments are not applicable. Brakes do wear out faster in city areas because we need to stop for stop signs on virtually every corner, ubiquitous traffic lights and often being behind semi-comatose drivers, with whom one must share the public roadways, who brake for hallucinations.
And don't worry about me - all the cars I've owned for the past 20 years are all automatics - not out of choice mind you, but out of sheer practicality and economic pragmatism.
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I'm not worried about your personal choices or really concerned with proving that you can or can't drive. I just object to the claim that "automatic transmissions [are] a 'must'" for city driving and manuals are for rural driving.
Oddly, city dwellers in Europe don't seem to have trouble with manuals...