I unclip early, just enough to get the rear side of the cleat disengaged, but keep the toe of the cleat in position. Coast up towards the stop, if it turns green then you can get re-engaged with the first push of the crank, else you can smoothly slip your foot the rest of the way out and put the foot down.

If you aren't used to the new pedals, just go to some big open place (parking lots work great) and just ride around a bit and clip in and out a bunch and practice. You didn't learn to ride a bike without practice, and new gear is the same way. Eventually you'll get the hang of them and traffic will be no problem. With enough time you might be able to start trackstanding, but I would also reccommend a parking lot to practice those before you try it in traffic.

Unclip at the bottom of your stroke, and just let your unclipped leg hang straight down, also put your clipped in side down. Coast up to crosswalk and as you brake to a stop ,slide your butt forward and step to the ground with your unclipped foot. After you are sure of your footing raise your clipped foot to a "ready to go" position. When it is safe to proceed (not neccesarily automatically when the light turns green) stand on your clipped in pedal and get your butt on the seat as you coast forward, clip in your loose foot at the top of its stroke. If you miss ,no big deal just pull the crank around with your clipped in foot and try again. I have seen plenty of people go over with the high and resting unclipped position, never with the loose and hanging unclipped position. Its how all the cool kids do it in my neighborhood anyway.

Huh?

1) are you sure you have the tension all the way light
2) Are the cleats tight and well-positioned?

My Bad, I thought you were correcting me on the OP's gender, when you were actually correcting me on yours.... Sorry about that.

My mom never raised no Idiot, I raised myself

any double sided SPD mountain pedal would be good for traffic (I use these on my commuter). not having to flip the thing over to get going at a traffic light is a nice thing. as is being able to push on the pedal without being totally clipped in.

but, when riding in traffic, the main thing is being cautious and planning ahead. knowing where you're going to have to unclip before you get there is extremely helpfull.

As a newbie, I have much difficulties when I have to start uphill after a complete stop.
There is always not enough momentum to coast until the loose foot to clip on.
What is the best technique?
Should I just pedal with my clipped foot until there is good enough momentum to coast?
What do you normally do?
Thanks.

It's really not hard to learn, and once you learn, you keep it forever. Trackstanding is much much more repeatable than clipping in...

I still miss a clip-in every couple weeks, but I haven't messed up a single trackstand in over 10 years.

I unclip at the top of the pedal stroke because it gives me more leverage to twist my foot and also allows me to stand up out of the seat since my other foot is already at the bottom of the pedal stroke.

Don't try to learn how to trackstand with your road shoes on, use regular sneakers or something otherwise you'll be falling over a lot.

Did you read the title of the thread?

Here's a refresher: "How do you handle Traffic with Clipless Pedals"?

Um yes I did. And if you cannot master clipless I feel sorry for you. Like I said, introducing yet another thing to learn into the mix of traffic and clipless is just plain stupid and potentially dangerous when the OP falls over in his clipless doing a trackstand for the first time in traffic. Maybe he can also do some bunnyhops one handed while popping a wheelie with one eye closed at the next red light.

This is exactly how I do it.

BTW, someone recommended eggbeaters and maybe my candy eggbeaters were set up wrong but the engagement wasn't audible enough for me. I have to waste a downstroke so that I can be sure of a connection on the upstroke before I start applying a lot of force. When starting from a light, it'd be nice to not waste any time wondering if you're really hooked in.

Got some spd-sl's yesterday and really like how the engagement comes with a very loud "CLICK".

Somtimes I will trackstand, but doing that on a road bike isnt the easiest thing. I will usually unclip one leg and coast, but it can get scary when you have to get out of the way quickly and clip back in. I've been looking at Speedplays for this reason. I used to ride almost exclusivley in the country, but now I live in the city so I have to deal with traffic.

I unclip, whether it's my left foot or right foot, only at that instant I want to put my foot down.

You don't learn to trackstand in traffic. I guess Darwin would take over from there.

The problem is that the people who can't trackstand really don't make a commitment to learn it. If you learn a bit, but only practice on training rides, you're not going to learn it. You'll put a foot down at four lights in an hour and pretty much give up.

I learned it really well in just two days. It was raining and I needed to recover anyway. So I rode to a parking garage (weekend) and learned in there. I'd work on it for 10 minutes, then do some fun laps around the corners to loosen up, then get back to learning again. Ever since that weekend, I've been able to freewheel trackstand all day long, standing, seated, one handed, whatever. That was my first season riding, back in 1991.

Same here. I have never had an issue with getting unclipped. It's when I try to clip back in that I look like an idiot, going 5 mph with my foot slipping off the pedal.