[supercat]

As long as you leave a margin so as not to cross the line on a red, I don't see where that can possibly be illegal...

You don't automatically get the right of way when your light turns green. If other traffic is in the intersection at the time, you must yield right of way to it.

Trying to "time" a green light is very dangerous unless you can see that there is no way any opposing traffic could enter the intersection before you get there. While it's hard to define exactly what would constitute illegal "timing" of a light, I would suggest that it is dangerous for a motorist to approach an intersection which is showing a red signal or contains opposing traffic in such fashion that the motorist would be unable to stop before it.

[sig226]

It is dangerous to approach any controlled intersection, regardless of signal conditions or right of way laws. They put the controls at the intersection for a reason. A red light is just a light, it can't make another car come to a stop. Any time you approach an intersection, your foot should be on the brake pedal and you should be decelerating, not coasting or accelerating. While I'm at it, leave some distance between yourself and the car in front of you. The red light can't make the car behind you stop, either.

I'm tired of scraping people off steering wheels and I don't want to do it no more.