Btw I now understand the hate towards manual cars. Automatic should be the only option

This is a big problem with people these days. You admitted you suck at driving, you’re just barely learning how to do it, but you think you’re qualified to mandate what is available to everyone else? You do not have enough experience to have an opinion that affects other people. Stick shift is completely intuitive when you know how to do it.

It definitely gets easier in my experience. A lot of the things that take conscious effort right now are going to become reflexes and automatisms with more experience. Right now you are building that experience, and there isn’t really a way to speed it up. You just need to do each action dozens and hundreds of times, until you do it without thinking.

Driving a manual car, for example, is definitely more complex than an automatic one. You literally need to manage one more thing. But do not worry about it, you will change gears a lot during your practice sessions and build a lot of experience quickly. In a few months you will probably not think much about gears, and in a few years you will be managing them without giving it a single thought.

Fun anecdote, I recently got a new car and it is an automatic one while I previously only drove manuals. For a few days I couldn’t figure out how to start smoothly, and I was very confused… until I realized that starting mostly involved the clutch on my previous car. The first movements of my right foot used to be to keep the rpm under control while disengaging the clutch, which is just not needed on an automatic car. I was simply applying the same muscle memory to the new car without realizing it!

Mate, you have zero experience how to drive but feel the need to tell others what is save and what not?

Can people please shut up talking about topics they know nothing about?!

It definitely gets easier after muscle memory kicks in. Doesn’t really make a difference if manual or automatic.

It becomes easy with practice, and driving a manual is not distracting at all once you get the hang of it

You’re right. You should give up driving.

At the risk of sounding negative - if driving a car is too hard for you, maybe you shouldn’t. You’re going to be piloting a 4000 pound boulder down the road. Would you really be okay killing someone by accident?

We live in an age of Ubers & Lyfts. Taxis have never been cheaper nor more convenient. Being car free is totally possible.

Regardless, I would still encourage you to finish your studies and get your driver’s license, if only because it’s the one form of ID every adult is expected to have.

Driving and shifting becomes second nature. It’s not something you think about. It’s like walking. You don’t think left foot, right foot, left foot… Uh oh was i at left or right?

Hello, driving enthusiast here.
Driving was stressful for me to learn as well. But i picked it up pretty quick. I learned in an auto and learned manual later which took some practice.

This all being said, like anything else, you are only finding manuals distracting because you’re still learning and they aren’t second nature. once you don’t have to think about driving a manual it won’t be distracting. automatics are the distraction problem, imo, because they allow drivers to play on their phone instead of driving.

I’ve only ever fallen asleep while driving an automatic (twice), never a manual.

You are frustrated while you are learning and that’s to be expected but don’t you dare go blaming your problems on others, such as cyclists. Being a poor, distracted, and terrible driver is your fault and your problem. If you can’t handle driving around other people then stop driving.

I learned to drive using a manual transmission vehicle. I spent a lot of time in empty parking lots, then in empty subdivision roads. It sucked, and having my dad as a teacher made things worse (he had a bit of a temper). As you stated, learning the clutch friction point for your vehicle is crucial (and it’s different in every model of car, so that’s fun), but once you get that down, the rest falls into place pretty easily.
I have had 4 vehicles since I got my license, and only the most recent one is automatic. I much prefer driving manual, but they’re getting increasingly difficult to find outside of sports cars.

And I hate automatic. After a few weeks or months, you won’t even realize there’s a clutch or shift. It’s actually easier, as with automatics I have to actually look at it to determine which gear I am in, eg. reverse or drive.

Dunno what the laws are like where you live but might be worth doing some lessons with a friend on quieter country roads to get more practice with the clutch if possible.

You need seat time. You’ll get better the more you do it, until driving is instinctual. Avoiding doing it is how you don’t learn.

It gets easier with practice, I don’t know about where you live but in Portugal to get your license you can only learn manual and you have to do 40 32 hours of driving lessons before the exam. By the end of the lessons it becomes second nature. We practiced a lot starting and parking in steep climbs and even rolling starting the car as if the battery was dead. But this was my experience, it changes from school to school.

Since here the majority of cars are still manual, I believe we should learn them because its much easier to move to automatic than the other way around.

It scared the hell out of me too, but soon it’ll be just like walking. When you were first learning to walk, you fell down a lot, and although most of us don’t remember it, you were probably reluctant to try again after falling. But you kept trying and it became second nature. Keep practicing and soon you’ll be singing along with the radio, eating a burrito and sending texts while merging across 6 lanes of traffic without even thinking about it.

Ok, maybe don’t do ALL those things. Just stick with it!

When I first started driving, it was with manual. And it really helped once I realized two things:

• Being shitty at gear shifts won’t make me fail at the final test. Instructor told me as much. If I wear out the clutch and cox up the engine through repeated stalls, that’s my problem - I can torture and destroy my car through ineptitude, as long as it’s done in accordance with road safety.
• Getting used to the clutch is half the battle. Not clutches in general, but the specific one you’re driving. Once you get used to know how insensitive or sensitive it is, the rest will be a lot easier. With time (and not a whole lot of it, actually), you’ll be shifting gear without having to think much about it, just like the rest; right now you’re struggling with you many areas that require your focus. As you practice them, you will do all of them without thinking about them.

I still need a while getting used to new gearboxes whenever I’m using someone else’s car.

Oh, and a tip: be sure to memorize the gear positions, and while standing still with the engine off you can practice shifting from and to any gear without looking. That’s one less thing to pay attention to.