In many places it’s actually illegal to sit at a red light or intersection with your car in neutral, foot off the clutch. You’ll fail your driving test if you do that.
If there is an emergency, getting moving is much slower than if you were in gear, foot on clutch.
> In many places it’s actually illegal to sit at a red light or intersection with your car in neutral, foot off the clutch.
If we are talking about the US, AFAICT, it is legal to do this in all 50 states. However, neutral coasting on a downgrade is illegal in several states. I was taught to put the car in neutral whenever a longer wait is anticipated to reduce stress on the clutch (I don't know if it actually reduces stress or not).
> You’ll fail your driving test if you do that
This is possibly true; at least where I am there are about a dozen perfectly legal things that can potentially cause you to fail your driving test.
I had points deducted on my test for not pressing the button on the automatic gearshift selector when changing from Reverse to Drive.
