Well, given that I said “when the light turns green,” it’s safe to assume that I didn’t mean “when the light is already green and you’re approaching at full speed,” so the first part of your comment was irrelevant. And yes, there’s a buffer, but that absolutely doesn’t mean that no one is going to come barreling through the intersection, especially if there was any kind of back-up at the light and they don’t want to wait through another cycle. It’s safest to assume that other drivers suck. When the light turns green, double check to make sure that the people who are supposed to have stopped actually have instead of flooring it like you’re playing Mario Kart Double Dash.