I don't run red lights. Fortunately for me, all of the lights on my commute have pedestrian buttons I can push to trigger a green.
I do it for three reasons:
1) I don't want to ever give a car an excuse to hit me (also why I only wear my iPod on the path and take the earbuds out on the streets).
2) Karma. The more rules I break, the more I feel like it's likely to come back around on me.
3) I almost get hit all the time when I'm OBEYING the law! I'm not about to start breaking it!!
But if I had a light that I couldn't trigger, I'd probably run it. I'd stop first and wait until there were no cars ANYWHERE though..
I wouldn't judge us all based on a moron. I mean, the guy's probably trying to get killed. Car drivers act crazy, too.
And good luck getting going with your bike commuting!!