[Spivak]

Right, so the reward/risk isn't enough for you. It's also prudent to stop at a green and look both ways but nobody does this either.

At the end of the day you either trust other drivers or you don't. You're not exposing yourself to any significant addional risk by making these 'safe violations' than you do driving in general.

[nostrademons]

The whole idea behind "defensive driving" is that you don't trust the other driver.

[emodendroket]

But in some sense you do, because you don't come to a dead stop at every intersection, even when it's green. And it's a bitter pill to swallow, but no amount of defensive driving can make you totally safe. Getting rear-ended sucks.

[nostrademons]

Sure, but you can take some relatively easy actions to significantly reduce your chance of injury by a crazy driver. I don't come to a stop at green lights, but I do glance both ways to see if there's oncoming traffic. Occasionally there is: I've seen people blatantly run red lights.