How do you define "beating the red light"?

[_Cathy_]

it is a common issue for all philippine motorist. the traffic light is green, we can see that the traffic ahead is flowing but very congested yet we still move forward hoping for the best. sometimes like what you mentioned there flow suddenly slows down. light turns red, our pretty car is in the middle of the intersection. grid lock.

this is a traffic offense in some countries. but in philippines ang sagot lagi ng majority motorista, "green pa eh. malay ko ba magiging traffic. dont blame me.. blame the people ahead and ayusin nyo daan."

So how are we supposed to predict that the traffic flow will suddenly stop or slow down???

If traffic is really congested I do not cross the intersection. I stop even if it is green. I'm not an inconsiderate person to block the traffic flow. This happened to me once and I have been driving more than half of my life. My guess is traffic stopped because they let cars cross from another intersection kaya kaming naka green ang naipit.