It all depends on your situation, but I tend to go with 1.

The left I make for work comes pretty quickly after making a right, so I just check traffic behind and ride the left turn lane to the light and wait for cross traffic to break.

I have had occasions where I needed to make a left on a 4-5 lane 1 way street. Since the far left is all parked cars on that road, I just did my best to watch for cars merging out and sailed down the left side until my turn.