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OK, that's all I wanted to know. That is, if this is actually a fact. Is it? Or, are you just guessing or assuming? Maybe it is defined like a reasonable number like one foot or something.
I know for a fact, with regards to Texas.
Sec. 544.010. STOP SIGNS AND YIELD SIGNS. (a) Unless directed to proceed by a police officer or traffic-control signal, the operator of a vehicle or streetcar approaching an intersection with a stop sign shall stop as provided by Subsection (c).
(b) If safety requires, the operator of a vehicle approaching a yield sign shall stop as provided by Subsection (c).
(c) An operator required to stop by this section shall stop before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection. In the absence of a crosswalk, the operator shall stop at a clearly marked stop line. In the absence of a stop line, the operator shall stop at the place nearest the intersecting roadway where the operator has a view of approaching traffic on the intersecting roadway.
Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 165, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.
In my city, the vast majority of traffic signals have been controlled by sensors for many years. Initially, they were wire loops buried just below the pavement surface, approximately where the first vehicle stopped at the light would be positioned. In recent years, the ground loops have been replaced by digital cameras that focus on the first vehicle positioned behind the white line. Many people think these are "Red Light" cameras for traffic enforcement, but they aren't. If a vehicle doesn't stop at a red liight within the camera's range, or over a buried ground loop, then the light may stay red indefinitely.
Also, if the loop or camera doesn't detect any traffic movement for a few seconds after the light changes, then it assumes traffic has cleared the intersection, and the light will turn red again. If someone stopped behind a red light that has turned green doesn't move forward fast enough (like not paying attention, or just too slow), the traffic behind them may have to sit through another cycle.
Here in NC it may even be a law to not pull past the line, either to turn left or to cross an intersection straight, if one cannot immediately clear the intersection. The issue is that the light turns red, with cars in the intersection blocking cross traffic.
That is correct! That is the origin of the term "grid lock," (although people also use the term colloquially to describe freeway backups) and such laws are apparently necessary in lieu of common sense.
Minneapolis recently implemented this law as a city ordinance because state law was too vague on the matter.
They call it the "don't block the box" law, and the point is, you're NOT allowed to block cross traffic or pedestrians in a crosswalk with the walk signal, so you'd best not be in that intersection when your light turns red.
I don't know the actual distance, but they have new ultra sensitive red light cameras around here. If even a tiny bit of your bumper crosses the stop line, you're getting photographed.
Getting photographed won't always mean you'll be getting a ticket - Logically, you would have to run through the intersection completely during a red light before they can actually issue a ticket, at least that's the way it is here in the Phoenix area. It would make sense because there were several times I had to come to an abrupt stop at a traffic light and I ended up stopping way past the first line, one time even past the second crosswalk line, but still within a safe distance, and it didn't set off the camera, which confirms what I mentioned about running through the intersection on a red.
At a light near my apartment with 2 left turns and a single right/straight lane I had to wait for 4 lights changes to go!
Why because 2 complete idiots were at least a cars length or more back in the double left lanes. 2 cars....at the same time....unbeleivable! 10 minutes of my life gone.
I left early to get gas before work....well that plan failed because of these 2 idiots. It took someone who was behind these two idiots to honk his horn for half a minute until they moved up.
I just couldn't believe it.
Pull the hell up the the line! Who needs to be 1-1.5 cars lengths away from the line!
Not many people know about those sensors. In fact, not many places have them. They are expensive.
They're pretty much ubiquitous in every moderately urbanized part of California I've ever been in. You get really used to them riding motorcycles since you have to park your wheel/engine over the magnetic part of the trip sensor to have any chance of triggering them.
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That is the origin of the term "grid lock," (although people also use the term colloquially to describe freeway backups) and such laws are apparently necessary in lieu of common sense. 
