It isn’t running the red if you’re legally in the intersection already. It works just fine (and I, too, live in the Valley) when everybody follows the same set of rules. The problems happen when you’re trying to make that turn as the light’s turning red and you’re still behind the crosswalk. Traffic running perpendicular to you in that situation then can’t see that you’re planning to turn on that cycle, and you get people gunning it from their side as soon as the light turns green at the same time that you’re first entering the intersection. Bad news for everyone involved.
I have seen studies which show that cigarettes don’t burn hot enough to ignite gasoline vapors. In fact the videos you’ve linked to appear not to involve the cigarettes themselves.
In the first case, the woman starts fueling, and then goes and sits in her car to wait for the fueling to finish. This action is famous for generating a static electrical charge (pants fabric rubbing on seat fabric). Note that the fuel vapors ignite as soon as her hand touches the dispenser handle - right when the spark leaps from her hand.
In the second case, the guy was playing with his cigarette lighter, which does burn hot enough to ignite gasoline vapors.
The nozzle didn’t automatically shut off?
You wait until you see the oncoming traffic is slowing, rather than speeding up, then complete your turn. Even if the light has turned red and one more car goes through the red, you compete your turn after he goes through. If you’ve pulled up, usually a second car gets through as well.
I yelled at a somebody in Yosemite who was attempting to climb up on a Sequoia tree. There are signs all over saying not to–besides, there’s not much to grab ahold of on them anyway. Of course he ignored me. He managed to get about six feet off the ground before slipping and falling on his ass. It was fun laughing and pointing at him.
So you’d hurt their dog just to get one over on the owner?
This is the absolute correct way to turn left on yellow or people can be stuck for what seems like forever. Should be universal knowledge.
I’m sure it did at first but he kept squeezing it.
This guy didn’t ignite the cigarette with happy thoughts about unicorns, though.
He definitely wasn’t smoking when I pulled up to the pump. He lit up while I was fueling my vehicle.
How could lighting up a cigarette using whatever means he used to do so ever be considered a good idea.
You’re the second person who has said that this wasn’t that big a deal. This guy was an idiot who endangered all of the people at that gas station.
I don’t even understand what the alternative would be.
I agree.
Probably not.
Not unless there was gas just spurting EVERYWHERE.
I once saw a guy in a supermarket parking lot working under a car precariously raised up on one jack. I merely called out, “Dude! That’s not safe. The jack could tip over and you would be crushed.” He comes out, grabs a tire iron and comes after me. I literally ran for my life. Fortunately I was fitter in those days.
Normally I wouldn’t do something like this, but I recently saw something that seemed almost suicidally dangerous.
A week or two ago I was driving my car when I saw a teenage boy skateboarding down the wrong side of the road, against traffic, with no helmet or pads. It was 2 lanes each way with a grass median in between, and a 35 mph limit. There was an empty sidewalk he could have used, but he didn’t. He was going right in the middle of the lanes, then went to the edge of the road when traffic approached, leaving very little clearance between him and the cars. I was on the other side of the road as him. I continued driving to my destination, a shopping center.
While I was in the parking lot of the shopping center, I saw the same guy skateboard down the sidewalk. I started to open my car door to yell at him, but he was gone too quickly.
On my way out, I spotted him sitting outside a coffee shop with a middle-aged man, presumably his father. I stopped, rolled down the window and told the older guy what he had been doing. There was traffic behind me, so I didn’t stay long enough to get much of a response. He flicked me off and the older guy was asking him “did you do that?” as I drove off.
Does yelling at the teenagers who threw their empty soda bottle into the community pond when there was trashcan 25 yards away count?
To bad you didn’t say, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
It would make for a more interesting confrontation. A slight difference that makes a major difference.
:DWin.
Heh. Me, I’d just turn away to avoid spatter.
Probably not, yes. But it is worth the risk?
I have one thing I do. One place I walk in SF has a bike lane. But half the bicyclists ride on the sidewalk instead. Now if they are 12yo and riding a pink bike at walking speed, sure. But those idiots on single-speeds zooming thru the walkers at dangerous speeds i yell at and say “Hey there’s a bike lane!”.
You’re right - I should pepper spray the owners. 
Come to a complete stop and back up back to the stop line? I see this way, WAAAY too frigging often.
The alternative in a big city is just to wait in your lane with your signal on until there’s no oncoming traffic. You can usually make the turn around 3 AM.