@MikeInNH is right. For a lot of MT drivers, it becomes muscle memory/subconscious in that the brain is processing how much movement and speed along with clutch/accelerator or clutch/brake. It takes a while to get to that point but many people are there.
Two years of a daily 13 mile commute into Oakland broke me. I returned to the rural south where a traffic jam only occurs when a funeral procession stops all traffic. And while I owned a manual transmission while in California it’s unlikely that I would have stayed a day longer if I had owned an automatic.
Not anymore. I drove the I-5 corridor near Seattle for about 2 years in a 5 speed vehicle. It built up my right arm and left leg which was noticeable to me anyway. I used to love shifting but that Seattle traffic put me off. I now love automatics and I’m getting older by the minute
Yup. One of my best friends here in Tacoma just started a new job in Bellevue. 32 miles. Takes him about 2 hours to get there, 2 hours back. 4 hours of driving to travel 65 miles.
He rented an apartment and sees his family on weekends now.
My Father taught to drive a M/T at the age of 13. I still prefer them over an A/T. Stop and go congestion can be a PITL (Pain In The Leg) but now that I’m retired I have more opportunity to pick my battles. I can avoid stop and go by avoiding peak congestion hours or taking alternate routes. I have owned 3 A/Ts that I actually enjoyed. They had performance shift kits. My favorite was a B&M 4 speed Hydromatic.
One of my co-workers has to travel from Olympia to Seattle almost every week for medical treatments at UW Medical Center and between all the possible stop-and-go on I-5 and the ramp to exit the parking garage she decided to trade in her stick shift Scion TC for a slightly newer Honda Civic automatic. Makes the trip so much easier.
My mother drove stick shift’s from 1970-2009 but the motion of shifting wasn’t doing her bad back any favors, she did eventually stop going for the imaginary clutch pedal on her new Prius.
Overall I prefer a manual, but not when I’m driving in Boston.
I go back to the 3 speed manual with the shift on the column and no synchronized low gear. The cars I owned with an easy shifting transmission were my 1947 Pontiac, 1948 Dodge, and my 1954 Buick. My 1955 Pontiac and 1965 Rambler had terrible shift linkages.The 1954 Buick had very stiff clutch springs. It almost took both feet to get the clutch pedal down. None of the manual shift cars really needed a synchronizer on first gear. The torque came on at a low enough rpm that second gear starts were possible. I think by the mid 1950s, the automatic had taken over and U.S. manufacturers really didn’t care about manual transmissions. I drove my manual shift cars in large cities with a lot of start and stop driving and shifting. However, I was 50 years younger back then. I might think differently about driving a manual in heavy traffic today.
I did 5 years of a 45 mile commute, majority of the miles on the tollway (parking lot) in places, especially approaching tolls. Many times I could just stay in first and a little gas if needed, and an occasional clutch when things were too slow. Don’t recall any negative thoughts about getting a manual trans. Also had backroads to skip the tollway if it was too slow.
Do you (or would you) drive a manual stick transmission in congested traffic each day?
I’d rather walk.
I would rather pick peaches and oranges from Miami to Beaufort than fight traffic for a job with an expressway commute. But I do appreciate those who are up to the struggle getting to work each day on I-95 and I-5, etc, and keeping the economy going.
I would and do. Working the gears is ingrained, and takes no more conscious effort effort than remembering to breathe, or “left foot, now right foot” when out for a stroll.
My left leg always got really tired in Boston, however.
I guess a lot depends on how congested and how long timewise. 
I’m a computer guy. I started on microprocessors around 1974. My rule is never do anything boring and repetitive if there is a machine to do it for me. It does not help any that my feet are large and clumsy. I drove my last MT in 1973 and suddenly did not mind taking my wife down town.
My brother-in-law was for years a sugar cane inspector in the state of Vera Cruz. As best as I could estimate he shifted those old Beetles hundreds of times a day for thirty years on those horrid country roads.
In retirement, he bought a Nissan sedan with AT. He still shifts it manually. When he starts out he pulls it into 1. Then when he is going fast enough, he moves the shifter to 2, and eventually to D. And, when he slows down he moves the shifter down until it is in 1 again.
I assume he was so used to shifting that it’s like a person who has a foot amputated and still his toes itch. To not shift simply is not correct for him and he is compelled to do it by any means necessary.
I want to reach out and slap his hand and shout knock it off, but he is a really tough old guy and would probably reflexively throw me out the window. So I grit my teeth and watch it out of the corner of my eye.
I’ve only driven manual transmissions for that kind of commute driving. I never had any problem. You can go plenty slow in first gear, and if you need to slow and stop, just put the clutch in and shift to neutral is all. Back in first and you’re going again. And besides a clutch master cylinder replacement, the manual transmission never needed any parts or tests or repairs or servicing of any kind at all in over 200 k miles, other than checking the fluid level, which I wouldn’t have had to do since it was never low.
I don’t buy sticks anymore because my wife just won’t drive one, but in 40 years of trucking I only encountered one tractor with an automatic transmission that I drove for one day and hated it. I drove trucks with 5,7,9,10.13,15, and 16, speed transmissions a lot of the 5 speeds were combined with a 2 speed rear end. Most of the 15 and 16 speed trannies had two separate shift levers 3x5 and 4x4. Most of them were also non syncro.
When you are buying used cars and want mainstream sedans you can find real bargains if they have a stick because they ar hard to sell.
There has got to be a reason you are asking the question and in such a loaded way. Obviously someone is trying to talk you into buying a stick shift car. No one should be forced to do that, the fact that you don’t want to trumps all other reasons.
There has got to be a reason you are asking the question and in such a loaded way. Obviously someone is trying to talk you into buying a stick shift car. No one should be forced to do that, the fact that you don’t want to trumps all other reasons.
I once had a MT (when heavy commute traffic wasn’t an issue) which makes me nostalgic to get another in the future.
I think @BillRussell nailed it; I wouldn’t tolerate a long commute in stop and go congestion with either transmission. I’d have to find either a different job, a different place to live, or different hours (unless perhaps I was only a year or two away from retirement).
This topic speaks to my current situation. I’ve ALWAYS had manual transmission for my daily drivers, although only rarely do I get caught in that kind of congestion. (I live in a vast surburban megalopolis but I work oddball hours). Agree, shifting becomes so automatic after years you don’t even think about the shifting, its just second nature. The maddening part is inching forward, stop. Inch forward, stop. Not really driving, but not really parked either. 
. .
Now that the manual transmissions don’t have an advantage in MPG, that seems to diminish the advantage significantly, although I would bet its a theft deterrent. Every now and again I hear a news report about a carjacking being aborted because the thief couldn’t figure out how to get his freshly stolen car moving.
I kind of wear it as a badge of pride. Whenever I tell someone my car is a “stick-shift” I get one of two reactions. Either they look at me in awe of my “ability” or they look at me like I’m crazy.
Currently I’m in the earliest stages of age-related knee pain (still hoping that losing weight will “cure” this) and also in the market for a replacement car. Although I am considering going to an automatic, my defiant (stubborn) nature keeps telling me “HEXX NO!” Like giving up a stick shift is a surrendering of sorts to advancing age.
Based on my 25+ years experience, I would have every expectation that the clutch on a new car should last me 200,000+ miles. . . of course I don’t live in a hilly / mountainous area either. . .
Nope. Within 6 months of moving to the North Shore area of Boston, I dumped my manual trans car for an automatic. People get really ticked off here if you don’t keep up with creeping traffic. Cars will dive in relentlessly if you allow a gap to form. So you’re subjecting your clutch to years of use in a short period of time and wearing out your leg in the process. To heck with that…
@“Ed Frugal”
Or you could do what I did . . .
Drive an automatic to/from work
but because I’m a fleet mechanic, I still drive lots of stick shift vehicles 
I used to do it all the time. Now I do it in the summers when I drive the MR2 to work, but the daily driver is an automatic. It’s not a big deal where I am, but I wouldn’t want to do it very much somewhere like NYC.