I aways sit with the clutch depressed and with the transmission in first gear. Saved my butt a couple times. Once while sitting at a snow covered intersection, a person tried making a right hand turn on the street I was waiting on. When the vehicle started sliding straight ahead halfway thru the turn and headed for the back of my vehicle. I just let the clutch out and moved about a foot forward and the vehicle just missed mine and slammed into the snow bank.
Another time I was waiting at another intersection on a rainy day. I then looked in my rear view mirror and could see a vehicle coming way too fast to stop in time. Again I just let the clutch out and turned around the corner. The vehicle slid through the intersection and got broadsided by another vehicle. So, I’m always ready to get the hell out of the way if I have to when driving a manual transmission.
But here’s another thing to consider. Each time the clutch is operated, there’s slippage between the clutch disc, pressure plate, and flywheel. And this slippage is what wears out a clutch. The throwout bearing, also called a thrust bearing, is designed to handle the lateral load imposed on it. So you’re more likely to wear out the friction surfaces of the clutch by operating it more times from taking out of gear and then putting it back into gear before you’ll wear out the throwout bearing from sitting at stop with the clutch pedal depressed.
Tester