You lived in or near NYC and didn't know that right-on-red is illegal in the whole city, at all times? There's no possible confusion there (except maybe near the borders of the outer boroughs, but Manhattan is an island so pretty hard to claim you didn't know you were in the city).
Back around 2003 or so I was in NYC visiting one of my fraternity brothers, and I made a right-on-red and he screams at me "Yooooooooo, what you doin?!?!" in his surprisingly thick NY accent for a guy originally from Shanghai. I had no clue that was illegal, it's not like they had signs stating it. I'm from Philly's NJ surburbs but I almost never drive up to NYC. Seems like a policy designed to easily ensnare out-of-town drivers.
That's why I said "or near". I figured it was common knowledge if you drive anywhere around the area. But it's true that it's not signed anywhere (that I know of), so if you're driving from farther away, it would be easy to get caught.
