I've found that it's best to ride predictably, and if this means queuing up with cars at a red light, then I'll queue up. Switching between being a vehicle and being a pedestrian is also a good way to confuse drivers and annoy pedestrians on the sidewalk.

OP: In urban situations, I'll ride in the lane with the cars (I can easily keep up with the general flow of traffic, about 15-20mph in Lancaster), waiting at red lights if I come across them. The lights in Lancaster are timed, so if you can maintain a good speed, you'll hit all greens anyway. Lancaster also has zero bicycle infrastructure. I know that Philly is getting a lot of bike lanes, so it's probably best to act as the locals do.

As far as triggering lights, usually there are plenty of cars to trigger them for me, but I've had good success with lining my bike up directly over one side of the loop, so both wheels are on top of the metal. They're upgrading a lot of our intersections to be camera-based instead of induction loops in the ground, and these pick me up 100% of the time.