<i>Is a stick shift better than an automatic? No. Is an automatic better than a stick? No. This misses the point. A better question: Is a road full of drivers not distracted by the arcane inner workings of their vehicle safer? It’s likely.</i><p>I may stand alone on this issue, but I see this the exact opposite. In an automatic, being able to drive along with just a foot on the gas and hand on the wheel, I find that I actually pay <i>less</i> attention to driving and more attention to everything else: other cars, the radio, my passengers talking, billboards, buildings, etc. In a manual, I'm infinitely more aware of what my car is doing and what <i>I'm</i> doing to mesh that hunk of metal and plastic with the rest of traffic, and far less focused on all of life's distractions.