Here in California, when I first learned how to drive, you were considered to have run a red light if any part of your was still in the intersection when the light turned red; now if any part of your car is in the intersection when the light turns yellow you are OK (I think it’s a bad change, but I wasn’t consulted). There is an exception to the new law, however. If you’re turning left from a left turn lane with a turn signal light, you cannot enter the intersection at all until there is room for your entire car in the lane into which you are turning. This is the part of the law that is most ignored and the cause of the vast majority of cars blocking the intersection when the turn light turns red and the through light for the opposite direction turns green. In the case of a single lane of traffic in all directions, at an intersection that is controlled by a light, I don’t see any way could successfully make a left turn unless you did enter the intersection on green, wait until the oncoming traffic is safely distant or stops for the red light, then make your turn. It appears from the discussion above that this would be illegal, however.
In my part of Calif, drivers simply running the red light on red-light controlled left hand turns is a much bigger problem than those getting stuck in the intersection. Pretty much every day I’ll see one driver run a left hand turn red light – cross the line after the light has turned red — then the next driver after that one does it too. It’s quite a dangerous practice, especially to pedestrians. Running a straight-ahead red light is much less common for some reason.
You should see this in South Carolina. I was at an intersection in Columbia. The light for my lanes turned green, yet the people turning across these lanes just continued to run the red arrow. There must have bee five cars doing this. I asked my daughter about it and she said it’s so common it has a name: Driving Southern.
lol … 
It’s all desperation tactics from drivers who are stuck in an essentially gridlocked system. Too many cars in a space and no one moves. That’s what the word gridlock means. China is experiencing it on a grand scale right now.
I’m beginning to believe the multi-purpose vehicles we are using are the wrong tool for the job. Cars that can travel hundreds of miles at high speed in comfort and safety are not the best for moving hordes of people to and fro in crowded areas. And people are using more and more large vehicles again, extended pickups and large SUVs, as simple transportation to move one or two humans and nothing else.
I don’t use a high power impact tool to loosen a screwed-in carburetor jet, and I don’t use a toothpick to unclog a toilet.