In California, once part of your car is across the line, you are considered in the intersection and may continue through.
What might happen in some communities is if you can’t clear the intersection (other side of the intersection is blocked with stopped cars) you may get a gridlock ticket, as you’re blocking side street traffic.
This is one of my personal bugs. WHY do drivers do that? I sometimes just go to the front of their car and glare at them for a bit.
It is so fucking rude.
When my kids took driver’s ed about 5-6 years ago, they were taught if you have to speed up to make the light, then you are not doing it safely. I modified my own driving habits to do this so I could act as a good example to them, and as an added benefit it lowered my blood pressure 
I found that more often than not I would catch up to the guy that zoomed through ahead of me at the next light. I still do sail through a yellow if I can do so without speeding up.
What pisses me off is I’ll sometimes have a car still halfway in the intersection in front of me in piled-up traffic, the light is turning yellow, so I stop before the stop line, since I’ll otherwise be blocking the box, and the asshole behind me will be pissed for not entering the intersection and trying to make that yellow.
A pre-Dude Jeff Bridges offers up a bad example of yellow light etiquette: “Yellow light, go very fast.”
Having just spent 4 days driving in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, I would say no one follows this even if it was the law. I often had to wait for 3 or 4 cars to finish running the red light before I could proceed after getting a green light light. At one very busy intersection in Hollywood, I had to sit through 3 greens before I could go. Drivers on the cross street would just keep on going when their light turned red then block the intersection.
Walk across their hood. 
Taiwan’s national sport is beating red lights, with many drivers clearly entering after it turns red. There are lots of accidents.
When we first moved here, I had both of the kids on my bicycle in safety seats and helmets. We were waiting at a red light and when it turned green then we entered the intersection, only to be T-boned by a scooter who had run the red. I wasn’t aware of the need for as much caution then. It knocked us over, but both kids were ok in their seats.
I was absolutely furious. My kids were screaming because they were surprised. I thought at first they had been hurt and daddy grizzly came out
Me too, with an exception. If it’s icy, and I have someone close behind me, I might force the yellow. Not everyone has snow tires, or pays attention.
So if, as you pass through an intersection for which you have a red light, you collide with another vehicle that has a green light, are you not at fault?
If you went into the intersection before the light turned red and still did not clear it - so badly that the crossing car T-bones you - then you are guilty of “blocking the intersection”.
If you are waiting to turn left, so for oncoming traffic to stop, then you are already in the intersection and in the lane. A collision by cross traffic at that point would be careless driving on their part. (You are not allowed to plow into a vehicle just because it is in the way if you can reasonably stop) They have been stopped at the intersection, if they start moving and hit you, they are equally at fault. The police will happily give both of you tickets.
Traffic Red Light Cameras, IIRC, generally use two induction loops buried in the pavement. You trigger these in sequence as you go over. The camera uses the calculated speed to determine if you will clear the intersection before the light turns red. if you enter the intersection on a yellow and don’t clear it before the red - going straight - then you risk triggering the camera, which will (should) record the fact that you in the picture are at least partly in the intersection and the light is red.
I have observed that at least in my neck of the woods those induction loops are not embedded in the left turn lane. Logical, since their primary purpose is as speed cameras despite what politicians say, and not too many survivors exceed the speed limit entering a left turn. I therefore peculate if you detour into the left turn lane at the intersection then get back in the inside lane after entering the intersection, you will avoid speeding or red light tickets. Have not had an opportunity or inclination to test this.
This is one of those laws that can be dangerous and should not be enforced except in the most extreme of circumstances.
You are approaching an intersection at normal speeds and the light turns yellow. You have about 1/2 of a second, if that, to make a determination of whether it is safe to stop or whether you should continue through the intersection. I don’t think that people should be faulted for making an incorrect decision in that time, especially if the decision is to proceed. If you beat a yellow light, you really are not endangering anyone. If you mash on the brakes, not so much.
Second guessing is even worse. My daughter got her learners driving permit a few months ago and she did this. She was approaching the intersection and the light turned yellow. I calmly told her to continue, but she wasn’t sure and at the very last second stomped on the brakes sending my paperwork flying from the back seat and snapping both of our heads forward and back. Luckily nobody was behind us.
Hijack: Do not leave empty beer–er soda cans or bottles strewn around your backseat. Those things are missiles in an accident.
In Texas, that is a ticket. If your car is in the intersection at any point the light turns red, ticket.
That’s not what the TXDOT says, though, at least in regards to red light cameras.
As I mentioned above, this is not true in Texas.
Also, link.
Red light camera programs take this into account. A positive defense is being in the intersection before the light turns red. That said, Dallas was caught shortening the yellow light duration to less than TxDOT requirements so the light would turn red before cars entered the intersection and drivers would get caught. This is an unsafe practice and defeats the purpose of encouraging good driving by having the cameras in the first place.
Also, what is true is that you can get a ticket if you cannot safely clear the intersection after the light turns red. Just getting into the intersection on yellow isn’t good enough, especially in heavy traffic.
Around here slamming on the brakes will get you rear ended. People are right on my bumper on most heavy traffic roads.
I try to stop for yellow if there’s time to brake gradually. I gently triple tap my brake to flash my brake lights. Then gradually brake.
Otherwise I’m not risking getting rear ended by slamming on my brakes for a yellow that changes just as I approach the intersection.
It’s unsettling how many people ride my bumper right through that yellow light. They had no intention on stopping for that light.
One is not “guilty” of anything until he is found guilty. And in what state would that scenario fit? That sounds nothing like the type of situation I’m familiar with that would find one getting cited with blocking an intersection. Below is what it takes in Rhode Island.
That is the type of situation I’m familiar with. One that is in regards to space in front of one, not due to not making it across because you got t-boned.
I don’t see how that is necessarily the case. Careless driving is usually pretty broad and can be given at the officer’s discretion when a driver was likely to put life or property in danger.
Why is it necessarily careless to go straight through a green light when someone is waiting to turn and turns into you? Do you have a cite for this?
Obviously.
Cite for equally at fault and both will get ticketed?
Only if somebody cees you.
mmm
I’m in Texas - so I guess the other posters above have addressed my question.
MUST continue through, if I recall traffic school correctly. Because…
So if you can make it past the limit line (in California, about six feet before the crosswalk line) before the light turns red, AND not stop in the intersection while it’s red, you’re good.