I'm having trouble visualizing that. Which foot is on the ground then???

I'm not going to trust that my muscle memory is talking to my verbal brain correctly, on where exactly in the pedal stroke I clip in. I'd guess it's somewhere just after 12:00, after the pedal I'm launching with has passed the bottom of its stroke, but I wouldn't swear to that.

But the deal is, the pedal hangs tipped up so that you can catch it with your toe on the way around and just slide your foot right in. It winds up being a clamshell-type motion more than stepping on top of the pedal. Front of cleat hits pedal, catches front of clip, pushes pedal to horizontal, rear of cleat pops in.

And yeah, if you miss and send the pedal spinning, you can always pedal one-legged until you're through the intersection (or whatever).