"Crossing red light while there is no cars improves the efficiency and doesn't cause anything bad to the society. However, as one report points out most kids would think crossing red light is not dangerous if they see others constantly doing that. Since 80% of the kids observe the world via watching outside from the windows, your action has an unintended bad consequeunce although it seems to be harmless.
One of the biggest issue with China now is people keep following money without regard to the rules and laws. Being professional may not always be the most efficient, but it sets some standard so things won't go much worse. In the case of HuangShan taxi drivers, now they happen to do something harmless to save the cost. However, if they are allowed to do things without regard to the customers and rules, they can do other bad things to save cost in the future as well."