– I have far more freedom with manual. Then I am free to buy the car I want and to be able to borrow a car without thinking about whether I have the ticket for it, says Tuva Hansen Melvær (18) from Lindås in Nordhordland. On 24 October, she passed the drive-up test for manual transmission. She is glad she did. – It is much more fun to drive a manual car than an automatic car. With an automatic there is only gas and brake, but with a manual I have to shift gears and think more through what I am doing, says Melvær. Ending with manual transmission, the 18-year-old goes against the flow. Because the vast majority of people who are going to learn to drive choose to do so in a car with an automatic transmission. In 2002, it applied to 51 per cent of all driving on class B driving licences, compared to 17 per cent in 2017. The trend is now so strong that many traffic schools are now ceasing to offer driving training in the “old way”. One of them is Positiv traffic school in Bergen. On Tuesday, they handed in their last car with a manual transmission. From now on, only electric cars with automatic transmission will apply. – It is simply because we see that interest has decreased, says general manager Ove Sagen-Hafstad. Automatic transmissions are becoming more and more common on newer cars. Photo: Cecilie Berntsen Jåsund / news He says that some still say they want to take the note on manual transmission “for safety’s sake”. He believes that is not necessary. Problems such as renting a car abroad and fewer job opportunities, Sagen-Hafstad believes, will not become real in the coming years. – In Spain, for example, there is mostly a 25-year age limit for renting a car. When today’s 16-year-olds are 25, most cars there will also be electrified, says Sagen-Hafstad. If you need to drive with a manual transmission, you only need to start again, he points out. Christian Holmeide in Møller bil Minde and Ove Sagen-Hafstad in Positive traffic school celebrate that the traffic school is 100 percent electric with a cake. Photo: Andreas Brøvig / Møller bil – More focus on traffic safety Senior advisor in training at the Norwegian Traffic School Association, Øyvind Årbogen, says they see the same trend. – More and more people are discovering that there is less to deal with when driving an automatic, and the possibility of getting a car with a manual transmission is decreasing. He knows of several traffic schools in Eastern Norway that have done the same as Positive Traffic School in Bergen. He believes that this is an exclusively positive development. – I don’t think there are any negative aspects to it. In the future, it will be automatic that applies. Regional manager of Trygg Trafikk i Vestland, Knut Olav Nestås, believes that driving with an automatic car means that you spend time on the more important things in traffic. This means that there is more focus on traffic. – If you think about road safety and traveling in a safe way, it’s not primarily about clutching and changing gears. It is about completely different things, he says. The Norwegian Automobile Association (NAF) sees the advantage of new drivers having less to do behind the wheel and thus being able to focus on what is happening around the car. – Automatic transmission has the advantage that, as a new driver, you can focus more on the traffic and your own behavior rather than concentrating on changing gears, says NAF advisor Jan Harry Svendsen. – We must still not end up in a situation where those who want to get a driver’s license for a manually-geared car no longer have the opportunity to do so. The law requires that in that case you must have taken the training on a car with a manual gearbox. As long as that requirement is there, driving schools must ensure that cars with manual transmissions are available. With the label for manual transmission, Tuva can drive both her parents’ and her boyfriend’s car. Photo: Roy Hilmar Svendsen / news – Bigger market in the district Owner and general manager of Feste traffic school in Knarvik, Øyvind Feste, feels that they have a bigger market for manual transmissions than in Bergen. – There are quite a few people out in the country who swear by manual gears. But it is decreasing, he says. Feste points out several reasons why people stick to the manual transmission in rural areas. In addition, there is a greater proportion of fossil fuel-powered cars than in the cities. The attitude towards electricity in rural areas is more characterized by range anxiety and few charging stations, says Feste. He does not overlook the fact that his driving school will one day be fully automatic as well. – It is probably not many years until we switch to automatic transmission, but we intend to offer manual transmission for a few more years.
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Traffic school drops driving lessons for driver’s licenses with manual transmission – news Vestland
