It's been a long, long time since I took driver training in high school, but we were never taught to do anything other than keep your foot on the brake at stop lights and other intersections. Around here these days, having to take off a parking brake and put a car into gear at a traffic light is going to get you rear-ended quite quickly. Of course, the technique is different with a manual trans, but those are in the minority today, although I did take my one and only driving test in a full-sized 1962 Ford with a six cylinder engine and 'three-on-the-tree'!

Drivers seem more impatient than ever and it doesn't take more than a few seconds of non-movement the instant the light changes before you either **** off the guy behind you or he runs into your rear bumper!

 

So what would happen if you did what i do. which is leave it in drive and put handbrake on?

 

You'd probably get either a loud horn blowing at you..., or you might get rear-ended! With many new cars today, you can't put the parking brake on with the transmission in Drive. My 2007 van would release the parking brake as soon as you took it out of Park. My 2011 T&C doesn't seem to do that, but I still don't see the reason to do anything other than keep your foot on the brake for the short time you're at a traffic light.

It might be different if sitting at a railroad crossing waiting for a long train, but that doesn't happen to me very often. Even then I just put it into Park and don't worry about the parking brake. The only time I use that is when I park on a hill.

 

Not sure what the situation is in the US but over here if you are hit from behind it is invariably the other parties insurance that pays out (assuming they are insured of course).

Lots of focus is placed upon keeping pedestrians safe (since they dont have insurance I do not want to wash their blood spots of the bonnet!) and to be honest... in 30 years of driving long distance I have never seen someone rear ended because they failed to pull away quickly enough. However... our traffic lights pause on amber for a few seconds before turning red... and maintain red and amber for a few seconds before displaying green... I seem to recall that there was no such delay when I was driving in NC a few years ago. Maybe these little variations help to account for the different approaches.

 

Your correct, our lights go from red to green to amber and back to red. I stay in drive with my foot on the brake. Brake lights are rather bright these days but, that is the first clue for the person behind you that your car may not be moving. It has been working for me for over 30 years.

 

In the US, I've never seen a traffic light that goes from red to amber before turning green. They go from green to amber and then red.


The amount of time that it stays amber before turning to red seems to depend more on how hungry the local authorities are for traffic ticket revenue. The shorter the time, the more tickets they write as they catch people going through just as it turns red. And...., of course now..., there's the increasing prevalence of cameras at intersections, automatically mailing out tickets if you make the slightest mistake at the intersection.

With the ever increasing use of computers and 'drive-by-wire' systems, it won't be long before there will be sensors and transmitters along all roads either sending out electronic tickets to those going over the limit, or sending a signal to the computer in your car that won't let your car exceed whatever the limit is set at.

 

Never taught to take car out of drive unless parking it. To my logic placing a car in park in traffic is asking for trouble.
Also never seen a traffic light go from red to amber to green. They go from Red to Green usually with a 3 second delay in between.