When your light turns green, you wait for all the cars on the cross street to stop at their red light? No wonder you’re getting rear ended.
I got rear ended by a rich b&&&& on a cellphone wasn’t paying attention. I was behind another car that was stopped because of a pededstrian on the crosswalk crossing with the light. Another time I was rear ended by a teenager on a cellphone who was oblivious to traffic being stopped while the lead car was waiting to turn left.
You can see if someone is approaching a traffic light at a high rate of speed. You are to enter the intersection when it is safe to do so. If the cars ahead of you are blocking the intersection, it doesn’t give you just cause to pull out and block the next cycle of traffic.
I have been hit from the left by a car that ran a light (elderly couple who’d left a doctor’s appointment). And even then I used to wait for “clearance” before pulling into an intersection. 18 wheeler in the left lane, I figured it was safe to enter the intersection blindly because he also pulled out and I had the light (he’d take the blunt if anything was coming through illegally). Except he stopped short when he saw the elderly couple coming through (his big vehicle blocked my view).
But to just say “dammit I have a right to floor it on green” is dumb. Law says otherwise.