To me, shifting in traffic is like chewing food. It has become second nature. I'm not going to switch to a smoothie-only diet just because there are times my steak might require some extra cutting and chewing.

Maybe it's just because I'm old and used to driving stick. Or maybe traffic in the SF Bay Area really isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

Not that I wouldn't ever own an auto... The problem is that with automatics getting better and fewer people driving stick, it's getting harder to find good manual transmission cars, which is kind of sad.