316.2024 Coasting prohibited

**Rich Z** · 03-09-2006, 02:30 AM

316.2024 Coasting prohibited.--

The driver of any motor vehicle, when traveling upon a downgrade, shall not coast with the gears or transmission of such vehicle in neutral or the clutch disengaged. A violation of this section is a noncriminal traffic infraction, punishable as a moving violation as provided in chapter 318.

History.--s. 1, ch. 71-135; s. 1, ch. 76-31; s. 154, ch. 99-248.
Note.--Former s. 316.094.

mrcoupe2002 · 10-19-2006, 10:53 AM

Does anyone know the logic or reasons behind this law? It has never made any sense to me...

**Rich Z** · 10-19-2006, 12:53 PM

Yeah, it does seem pretty nonsensical to me. Not that there are all that many significant hills in Florida anyway, but when on a substantial downgrade in a manual transmission vehicle, I would normally take it out of gear to just coast down the hill.

So yeah, what in the world would have prompted the legislators to make a law AGAINST such a thing?

MADN3SS · 10-19-2006, 01:12 PM

I do it all the time.

My guess would have to be that if you needed to take immediate action by pressing the accelerator, you would first have to put it in gear. Maybe Gordon can give us his

Shadow · 10-19-2006, 05:15 PM

I'll see what I can find out Scott. The only thing I can imagine is the compression braking effect the car in gear would have in slowing the vehicle and as you mention, the ability to make an immediate reaction. Other than that,I'm sure it dates back to the stone age...now where is it that I can hitch my horse?

MADN3SS · 10-26-2006, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow

I'll see what I can find out Scott. The only thing I can imagine is the compression braking effect the car in gear would have in slowing the vehicle and as you mention, the ability to make an immediate reaction. Other than that,I'm sure it dates back to the stone age...now where is it that I can hitch my horse?

I was thinking about this a little more. Driving to work, I do 45 in a 40 down 113th St. In 6th gear, which I'm in when the traffic is very light, the rpm's are about 1200. That's pratically neutral. So if I need to make a sudden acceleration, I'd still have to change gears. You'd get more compression braking in the lower gears.

And secondly, let's say a LEO wanted to bust balls on something like this. How does one know if someone is coasting up to a red traffic light? Or down a slight grade? Is it something that's provable without a mathematician calculating it?

Ghost · 11-08-2006, 04:00 PM

Well, I've been in the cop-shop biz for nearly 30 years. I don't believe I've EVER seen a citation for this.

For an officer to issue a citation, the officer must first observe the violation.... beats me how one would do that... sooooo, this must be one of those laws left over from antiquity, similar to the steamboat racing prohibition in the intracoastal waterway....