Saw some one in an OBS dodge cummins the other day in one of the busiest parts of my trip (4 lanes both ways and a crapload of merging going on) turns his signal on to change to the left lane a couple cars in front of me......and then drifts into the right lane with the LHS blinker still going for a mile after that. Proof that there are still some good drivers left because they saw him coming and nothing happened.
No idea if it was manual or auto in that truck but if it matters I was cruisin' in the diesel ranger at the time which is stick shift. I agree that you are much more in tune with the vehicle with a manual transmission and you are forced to plan ahead in traffic. Its night and day driving my truck then going to the ranger or saturn (saturn is manual steering to boot).
First of all awareness of pedals is the FIRST thing you lean when driving stick. Get it wrong and you stall with half the other drivers honking at you. Get the pedal wrong with an auto transmission in todays high HP vehicles and you are going to move before you know what happened. This is more true for those that have never learned stick shift and simply follow their noses while driving. Then you have the folks that are driving auto with both feet and we wonder why some one drives their car through the front door of a corner store.
I'm sure the ABS, ESP and more recently automatic threat avoidance (slams the brakes for you) will make the roads soooooo much safer for the dwindling number of drivers that are super human in their ability to stay alive without those bells and wistles.
Aw crap, I'm ranting again....