Quote:
Originally Posted by Sven7
This is illegal. That's why. It is against the law to coast in neutral. Forget EOC. And forget car companies tailoring cars for EOC.
Minnesota, for instance:
169.39 COASTING.
(a) The driver of any motor vehicle when traveling upon a downgrade shall not coast with the gears of such vehicle in neutral. |
The coasting laws go back to the mid 1930s when Plymouth came out with freewheeling. Basically it was a one way clutch that allowed you to let off the gas and the car coasted automatically.
The problem was if you were going downhill on some fairly steep grades, like US 50 through the mountains in the western portion of Virginia, if you forgot to disengage your freewheeling you could melt the brakes and go off a cliff.
They could not make the car illegal so the made the act illegal. Today you have cars like the Prius that coast automatically if you position the gas pedal in just the right spot, but the brakes on modern cars and other systems on the Prius do not require you to stop and disengage the freewheeling like you had to do on the old Plymouth.
It does kind of make you think, when you realize that the only reason for the freewheeling option on the old Plymouth was to get better mileage. In the mid 30s the speed limit in Va was 35 MPH throughout the state unless other wise posted.
While the ancient coasting laws still exist on the books, I have asked police officers here if they were even aware of that law. None knew about it and most said it was basically unenforceable since you are coasting in any manual car whenever you push the clutch in to change gears.
regards
Mech