It's also a better one, because you only have two directions to move to switch between reverse and first (up, right, up) rather than three (down, right, up). I've never seen a car like that though.
Well, grab a Ferrari then, you'd have to push a button twice, and nothing more
Or, on the other end of the spectrum of coolness, a tractor has 3 sticks: one is the normal gear shift, one is the reduced speeds (when you need great pulling strenght) and the last one is for forward or backward motion - all you have to do to switch between first and reverse is moving the stick down or up).
BTW: then you need also a quick maneuver for 5th -> 3rd shifting (for when you
really need to stop in the closest space possible, so it
has to be super-fast), ever thought about that?
Hey, maybe you can't break speed limits with them. I once chased down a BMW that almost killed me to give him the finger and slam his hood. True story*.
I am able to do 10 km in 15 minutes in heavy traffic and city environment. Can you do that in a bike (= keeping an average speed of 40 km/h, and that's with stopping at the red lights and all).
Once I hit 15 km in 7 minutes in town, respecting traffic lights (but then again I'm a pervert and hit 140 km/h in a town)