Manual Driving

People, including myself, become very familiar with their vehicle and create a comfort zone within it. We fill them full of worthless and distracting trinkets all the while we blast whatever music gets us in the "driving" mood.

Your car gets broken in to and you're torn to pieces over all the crap that you now can't even recall you had because it's no longer there.

Remember when you were 15 years old with a driving permit learning to drive on the road for the first time? You were anxious and nervous and it was pretty scary.

I went home to Virginia last month. I haven't really driven a car in nearly over a year. I got to use my dad's Jeep for the week and I almost automatically just snapped back into that "drive around wherever the fuck you want.. whenever.. no matter how short the distance.. how many times you may or may not have been there in the last day. " Just Drive because you have to.

I noticed in Fredericksburg people were actually using road bikes for transportation which sadly I laughed at in places like Stafford or Spotsylvania due to the amount of congestion on the roads down there.

Then I came to realize that I was driving a fucking gas guzzling truck while pointing out and judging the few people I saw riding bikes (There was a dude decked out in bike gear who was leaving Wawa which I found hilarious.) What the hell was wrong with me?

I did try to drive in an Eco-friendly manner though. I drove the speed limit which is nearly impossible to do anywhere but I really like driving a blacked out Jeep REALLY FUCKING SLOW around Northern Virginia. People don't tailgate you for the most part.

People who drive cars get too fucking used to driving and they drive like annoying little siblings. They speed all over the fucking place, they drive bumper to bumper at all times, they don't pay attention to shit and rarely use turn signals.

Why? We've gotten way too hooked on the excessiveness of owning a motor vehicle. We don't walk anymore. We take big buses around rather than hop on a bike and get there in just about the same time.

Why? Because people drive like fucking maniacs. They drive big and fast cars. The majority of people drive automatic transmission vehicles that take away all the mechanical feeling of how HUGE that chunk of metal is that you're zooming around in.

I think we should make all current automatic vehicles be used until they are scrapped or primarily used for those with handicapped needs. If your car has handicapped stickers then it can be an automatic. Otherwise.. buy a manual transmission and get that feeling of "Ohh Shit I'm gonna stall-out stopping on this hill.."

It will bring the fear back to your driving and it will hopefully make you think before you hop in your car, crank the tunes and the A/C, and tear-ass out of your parking spot while hitting the person on the bike that you didn't see because you're too fucking lazy to turn your fat neck around to check your blindspot.

In the words of Philip Seymour Hoffman "Go fuck yourself, you fucking child."