Just because it was in a book back in the day, that doesn't make it "correct", sorry but I strongly disagree with 1st gear at a light. I guess it's not surprising to see that most people feel they'd actually have a chance to get out of the way of something or avoid something, but I feel that you're fooling yourselves
Firstly, you'd need to see the danger. How many times have you sat at a light, looking all around, keeping up a good situational awareness, eyes peeled for trouble? Often? or do you more likely fiddle with the radio, look at the light, glance at the cars next to you a couple times, and check your hair in the rear view mirror?
Next, in order to
use your razor-sharp reflexes to move the car from danger, you have to have room to move. You car goes forward and reverse, not sideways
. In traffic, you have a car in back of you, and a car in front of you, about a yard away from your bumpers, most times. It's rare that you're alone at that light. Slightly less common to be first in line and have no car ahead, or last and no car behind. But in most situations, you're going nowhere. You simply have no room to maneuver.
However, you can be rear-ended at almost any time. When I learned to drive a manual 25 years ago, and when I took a job driving a manual trans delivery truck, I was taught the same thing: neutral, so if you're hit from behind you don't lunge forward into another car or pedestrian/dog/cop/little old lady/ litigious lawyer
In my opinion, if you guys have such lightning-fast reflexes that you can have an opportunity to avoid danger while stopped, have the situational awareness to see danger coming in time to do something about it, and are skilled enough to get your car out of harm's way in time, you can slap the lever into 1st in a nanosecond anyway.
Sorry, but I strongly feel you folks are fooling yourselves. Hope you don't end up regretting it