On Saturday, December 14, 2002, at 12:41 AM, David Marshall wrote:

> This also comes down to other issues as well.  Say you are turning
> left and
> you enter the intersection while the light is green and come to a
> stop... it
> turns yellow and when the last straggler is through the intersection
> you
> then complete your turn and off you go.  Usually at this time it is a
> red
> light and the other traffic is waiting for me to get out of the way.
> Am I
> in the wrong - do I deserve a ticket for being in the intersection
> during
> the red light (seeing how I entered when it was green)?

IN the jurisdictions I'm familiar with (DC, Md, Va, WV) yes, you
deserve a ticket because you are not supposed to ENTER an intersection
unless you a SURE you can clear it while legal. In other words you are
supposed to wait OUTSIDE the intersection until the opposing traffic
has cleared enough to permit you to travel clearly through the
intersection without interference. This doesn't just apply when
turning, but also when traffic is such that the is standing traffic
going straight (which of course will almost always be continuously
congested by Right Turn On Red drivers, who pay no attention to the
fact that >YOU< have the right of way that they can not (legally) make
a right turn on red for the same reason you can't cross the
intersection.

In practice few of the above legal practices are followed.