You can't learn to drive here in just anyone's car. You have to take lessons with a certified instructor in one of the special cars with the pedals on both sides so the instructor can prevent an accident if you mess up. But lessons are around 45 Euros for a 50 minute lesson and you can't practice outside of those lessons, so it takes a while. I did better when I did 2 or 3 lessons in a week to keep everything fresh in my mind. A week between lessons was just too much. I'd forget things I learned before.
But that's exactly why I think automatics are safer...there's so much more going on that you have to concentrate on in a manual. It's so much easier to do something wrong or miss something. You take your hand off the wheel to shift, then see some moron cut you off and you have to steer with only one hand while you shift with the other. And no matter what you're driving, there are people who are distracted....the fact that they are in a manual doesn't necessarily guarantee they are focused where they should be. You can't eliminate distractions....your phone could ring, and even if you don't answer it, that ringing is still a distraction. (I keep mine on silent, but it still lights up and vibrates when I get a message or an incoming call.) Or a cat runs into the road. Conditions won't ever be perfect, so needing to do more things at once is going to be more of a hazard than a help. The more pins you are juggling, the more likely it is that one of them will fall.
As
@Lilofan said, it definitely takes practice. However, having driven roughly half automatics and half manuals in my 50 years of life, a manual transmission is far safer for a number of reasons.
1) you can downshift or disengage the transmission to stop in an emergency, which results in much faster stopping
2) you have much more control over your speed without the need of using the brakes, which is important in inclement weather
3) automatic transmissions may free up your hands, but also create optimum circumstances for people to be doing things they shouldn't while driving (shaving, reading - yes...seen people reading the newspaper while driving, putting on makeup)
4) dozing off behind the wheel is far more likely in an automatic because of the lack of driver involvement
5) automatic transmissions create a false sense of security and drivers are more likely to get "lost in their heads"
6) DOOMSDAY SCENARIO - you can keep the RPMs high and get through a flooded area without the engine stalling out provided that the water isn't as high enough to drown the engine itself (Storrow Drive through Boston...done it more than a few times...water was above the exhaust pipe and higher than the bottom of the doors on the car)
Many newer manual transmission cars have a light that comes on to tell you when to shift. That being said, I would never drive a manual transmission car that didn't also have an RPM gauge, because that's truly the best way to know when it's time to shift. Manual transmissions also last longer than automatic transmissions (unless you're constantly stripping the gears), and they do definitely get better gas mileage. I currently drive an automatic (bought it when we decided it was time to start a family after driving a manual for years), but my next car will be a manual.
I DO understand where you're coming from - there's definitely a learning curve involved in driving a stick, and driving one only for the length of time it takes to learn to drive just isn't enough for it to become second nature.
