Oh, I can assure you that driving manual doesn’t keep people from dabbling with their phones… If anything, it makes it more dangerous, since… well you’ve only got two hands, right.
And automatic is becoming the norm here as well, at least with new cars.
I‘d say it has a variety of reasons. Cars are huge in the US, streets are wide, pedestrian safety is not really a thing, the driving exam is harder and more intensive here, and I feel just… safer.
For example, here I don’t really wait at a zebra crossing, I basically just step on the street and expect the cars to yield because they have to. I would never do that in the US…