ROUND and round they go, and where they stop, nobody knows. Phuket's most reviewed traffic option, the one-way system in Patong, is being looked at again over the next three months.

At the end of that time, Phuket officials hope to be closer to a final decision on whether clockwise or anti-clockwise is Patong's way to go.

Debate continued yesterday in a key meeting at Patong Municipality offices, with the pros and cons of both systems being painstakingly reviewed.

While it seems to be generally accepted that time is up for the current clockwise one-way system, the alternative anticlockwise system still has crosses among the ticks.

Everyone agrees that it would be a big plus for Phuket's favorite west coast tourist destination if visitors actually saw the sea before they reached their resort.

The present configuration sweeps traffic from the airport and from Phuket City down towards the beach, but turns the traffic tide left at Rat-U-Tit 200 Pi Road, which is one block back from the beach road.

Reversing the tide would certainly give new visitors a better perspective on Patong and the beachfront as they arrived.

Whether clockwise should be the new anticlockwise, though, just as whether grey is the new black, has yet to be determined.

Certainly, the battle for a one-way system in Patong is over. Nobody is suggesting, as tuk-tuk drivers once did, that the old two-way needs to be restored.

But the issue that remained today was whether the gridlock that has been kept at bay by the clockwise one-way system will still be kept at bay if the traffic loop is now reversed.

The two problem intersections are the present easy turn into Rat-U-Tit 200 Pi Road, and the swing right by arriving traffic at the beach towards Kalim and Kamala.

Patong's traffic police expert, Lieutenant Colonel Nikorn Rawang, told today's meeting that congestion would develop more easily at both intersections. Traffic lights would probably be required.

Patong mayor Pian Keesin suggested a traffic circle at the Kalim turning, but Lt Colonel Nikorn reckoned that a circle would not solve the issue.

The same problem of whether the reversal would ease traffic flow or increase congestion at the present Rat-U-Tit 200 Pi Road turning remains a key issue.

Some changes to the soi lanes that run in between the beach road and Rat-U-Tit would make the system easier to understand and keep all motorists on the left.

Some would be two-way, others one way. But a reversal was not all a case of plus-plus. Patong Hospital would be more difficult to reach, for example, from the beach.

More study is required, the meeting decided, along with continuing surveys of the people of Patong whose daily lives would be most affected.

No decision will be made until after the options presented today are reviewed again in three months.