I drive a 1991 W124 300d with the 6 cylinder 12 valve non turbo engine, and 4 speed auto box, in which 1st is rarely used. Auto box is important.
Unless it is a hill start, I give it a whiff of throttle, somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 RPM depending on road, grade, etc, and leave the throttle there, the car accelerates away, changes gears, and before long you are exceeding the speed limit in town.
Up to around 30 mph wind resistance is essentially zero, and rolling resistance is also essentially fixed, so fixed throttle + torque converter + auto box = essentially a flat or constant acceleration curve.
In the real world, auto boxes are still rare in the UK, so the chances are that whatever is in the rear view mirror when you are stationary at a junction / lights / whatever is stick shift.
Stick shift by definition can't do fixed throttle, or fixed RPM, so the engine is all over the torque curve, all over the RPM range, and what happens to the guy behind in his stick shift is;
1st gear - he is up your ass, you can see it in his face, why is this idiot crawling off the lights?
2nd gear - he just dropped back ten feet, now holding distance, in his face finally the guy in front is starting to move.
3rd gear - now he is falling behind, he is asking himself why the tortoise in front suddenly decided to put his foot down.
4/5th gear, provided the section is long enough, now he is pedal to the metal trying to close the gap... and sees my brake lights come on as a coast to a stop, again steady decelleration, he has to brake hard, harder, jerks to a stop and the suspesnsion rises.
----------------
Flip it around, I'm 2nd in the queue behind the stick shift, he pulls away in 1st, when he shifts to 2nd he is no longer pulling away, 3/4/5 and I'm reeling him in, start braking gently and early and he pulls away, then he brakes hard and late and we are back together again.
-----------------
I don't just benefit from a smooth "wafty" ride, less mechanical wear and tear, better fuel consumption, I am JUST AS FAST, even though it may feel slower subjectively.
The point?
Well, this
and this
and this
(all examples of traffic calming)
are all there to deal with drivers who do not use constant acceleration, and they are a pain in the ass, waste fuel, increase wear and tear, and increase noise and exhaust pollution.
and it will remain this way as long as automatics are in the minority, because the only way you can get constant acceleration with an internal combustion engine is with an auto or perhaps a CVT like DAF variomatic.
Except, give it a few years and we could well see as many electric cars as automatics, and if those electric cars are built properly with hub motors direct driving the road wheels, then constant acceleration is even easier to achieve that with my auto merc.
Oh yes, the first lot of electric cars will be range limited and recharge time limited, so will only be used in town, exactly where you find traffic calming...
So there are obvious benefits to efficiency, traffic flow, urban peace and quiet, the environment, etc.
The thing is, stick shift man is the last person on the planet to want to buy an electric car, for all the usual complaints, unless of course it is a Tesla roadster.
The thing is, if you drive a merc auto (silver E350 cdi owners need not apply
) , you are likely to be an early adopter of electric cars, because your driving style is exactly the same.
So the adoption of electric cars is likely to be driven by factors other than those touted by those people promoting and selling electric cars, it is in fact likely to be driven by people who are used to a flat acceleration, and not people used to the combination of stick shift and IC engine.
I think the proof of this theory can be found in automatic motorcycles, only a few models were made, such as the Honda 400, and they sold abysmally, the antithesis of everything that a motorcycle is, revving through a sequential gearbox, but "auto" scooters and mopeds sell in vast numbers to people quite happy to bimble around on town and city roads and rarely exceed 40 mph.
Unless it is a hill start, I give it a whiff of throttle, somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 RPM depending on road, grade, etc, and leave the throttle there, the car accelerates away, changes gears, and before long you are exceeding the speed limit in town.
Up to around 30 mph wind resistance is essentially zero, and rolling resistance is also essentially fixed, so fixed throttle + torque converter + auto box = essentially a flat or constant acceleration curve.
In the real world, auto boxes are still rare in the UK, so the chances are that whatever is in the rear view mirror when you are stationary at a junction / lights / whatever is stick shift.
Stick shift by definition can't do fixed throttle, or fixed RPM, so the engine is all over the torque curve, all over the RPM range, and what happens to the guy behind in his stick shift is;
1st gear - he is up your ass, you can see it in his face, why is this idiot crawling off the lights?
2nd gear - he just dropped back ten feet, now holding distance, in his face finally the guy in front is starting to move.
3rd gear - now he is falling behind, he is asking himself why the tortoise in front suddenly decided to put his foot down.
4/5th gear, provided the section is long enough, now he is pedal to the metal trying to close the gap... and sees my brake lights come on as a coast to a stop, again steady decelleration, he has to brake hard, harder, jerks to a stop and the suspesnsion rises.
----------------
Flip it around, I'm 2nd in the queue behind the stick shift, he pulls away in 1st, when he shifts to 2nd he is no longer pulling away, 3/4/5 and I'm reeling him in, start braking gently and early and he pulls away, then he brakes hard and late and we are back together again.
-----------------
I don't just benefit from a smooth "wafty" ride, less mechanical wear and tear, better fuel consumption, I am JUST AS FAST, even though it may feel slower subjectively.
The point?
Well, this
and this
and this
(all examples of traffic calming)
are all there to deal with drivers who do not use constant acceleration, and they are a pain in the ass, waste fuel, increase wear and tear, and increase noise and exhaust pollution.
and it will remain this way as long as automatics are in the minority, because the only way you can get constant acceleration with an internal combustion engine is with an auto or perhaps a CVT like DAF variomatic.
Except, give it a few years and we could well see as many electric cars as automatics, and if those electric cars are built properly with hub motors direct driving the road wheels, then constant acceleration is even easier to achieve that with my auto merc.
Oh yes, the first lot of electric cars will be range limited and recharge time limited, so will only be used in town, exactly where you find traffic calming...
So there are obvious benefits to efficiency, traffic flow, urban peace and quiet, the environment, etc.
The thing is, stick shift man is the last person on the planet to want to buy an electric car, for all the usual complaints, unless of course it is a Tesla roadster.
The thing is, if you drive a merc auto (silver E350 cdi owners need not apply
) , you are likely to be an early adopter of electric cars, because your driving style is exactly the same.So the adoption of electric cars is likely to be driven by factors other than those touted by those people promoting and selling electric cars, it is in fact likely to be driven by people who are used to a flat acceleration, and not people used to the combination of stick shift and IC engine.
I think the proof of this theory can be found in automatic motorcycles, only a few models were made, such as the Honda 400, and they sold abysmally, the antithesis of everything that a motorcycle is, revving through a sequential gearbox, but "auto" scooters and mopeds sell in vast numbers to people quite happy to bimble around on town and city roads and rarely exceed 40 mph.
Auto has a little smoother gear transition, but manuals transitions are never problematic to traffic flow IMO. 
