No, it's about German drivers, or rather German traffic lights. Some time ago
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libraryman was in Germany and he told me that he was a little weirded out by the traffic lights, which instead of the North American Green-Yellow-Red pattern went Red-Yellow-Green. Maybe there were two occurrences of yellow, I'm not sure. Red-Yellow-Green-Yellow?Anyway, the explanation given to him was that, since practically everyone in Germany drives a stick, the yellow light was the signal to shift back into first gear. Because I guess most drivers pop the car out of gear when they're sitting at a light?
Okay, admittedly I am not as good a driver as your average German. (Or your incompetent German, if we're going to be honest here.) But I've been driving a stick pretty consistently since about 1987, and most of my family drives or has driven stickshifts, and I've never seen anybody pop the car out of gear at a red light. We mostly just sit there like idiots with the clutch deployed. (Although come to think of it I look for the yellow light going in the other direction as my warning to get ready to go.)
Is this just another example of how Maritimers can't drive? Possibly. But it's also an opportunity for my second-ever poll. Here we go!
Poll #926677
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All
When sitting at a red light, I generally
shift into first and hold down the clutch.
1 (12.5%)
shift into neutral and leave the clutch alone. 5 (62.5%)
shift the automatic transmission to "N." 1 (12.5%)
ignore what the driver is doing, my job is looking after the radio. 1 (12.5%)
shift back and forth between first and reverse and let the car roll a little to keep the driver behind me alert. 0 (0.0%)
All drivers should follow the customs of
the Germans! They build Volkswagens! 5 (62.5%)
the Japanese! They build Hondas! 3 (37.5%)
the Chinese! There are more of them! 0 (0.0%)
The Russians! They build Ladas! 0 (0.0%)
By not shifting into neutral and sitting there stepping on the clutch, Coneycat is going to
destroy her transmission, eventually. 2 (25.0%)
do absolutely no harm to her transmission. 1 (12.5%)
What does it matter? Coneycat's more pressing concern should be whether someone is going to steal this car, too! 5 (62.5%)
- Mood:
confused
Comments
Later, you get yellow, and you *know* that the next thing will be red, so you have fair warning.
My more serious worry is missing the gear when I go to shift back into first at the green light. Not that I'm in the habit of doing that but I have a tendency to fear the worst.