AN INTERNATIONAL gathering on Phuket will be looking at road traffic and safety issues for the second day today, without perhaps tackling the most important question of all:

''No matter how late one jumps a set of Phuket traffic lights after they turn red, why is there is always at least one driver coming through behind you?''

While Phuket was chosen for the international gathering from 10 nations on the basis of its appeal as a beautiful island for a conference, islanders will relish the irony.

Phuket is, after all, in a time warp, with the extravagant fares of tuk-tuks and taxis maintained by corruption and greed, preventing the introduction of an efficient, low-cost public transport system.

We hope participants from Bangkok and overseas get the chance to check out the island's traffic and safety for themselves. They may be surprised, but probably not pleasantly.

The First International Conference of the Thai Society for Transportation and Traffic Studies aimed at discussing the ''Future of Human Mobility.''

Hopefully, present-day Phuket ''mobility'' does not have a future.

Andreas Vesper, from the Department of Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering at Bauhaus University in Germany, said the aim was to improve road traffic safety by an exchange of knowledge and networking.

Thailand's traffic he described diplomatically as ''very interesting'' and different to Europe.

As for tuk-tuks, he said: ''A lot of tourists come to Thaland, they want to see the tuk-tuks, they want to enjoy the tuk-tuks. I think they should leave the tuk-tuks on the road.''

Mr Vesper had just arrived on Phuket so we think he was basing his view on experiences in Bangkok, where the tuk-tuks are fairly-priced and have only three wheels, and where there are plenty of other low-cost public transport options.

Professor Pichai Taneerananon, who heads the society and is from the Faculty of Engineering at Prince of Songkla University in Had Yai, said it was good to be able to hold an international conference of this kind in Thailand.

''Thailand needs more knowledge and technology to make traffic flow well and save lives,'' he said.

Experts with various specialties have come from Thailand, Australia, Taiwan, Hungary, Germany, Malaysia, Japan, India, China and Bangladesh.

The conference at the Metropole Hotel in Phuket City was opened by former Prime Minister of Thailand Chuan Leekpai.

He said that with global warming and energy issues as well as 1.5 million deaths on the roads worldwide each year, the future of human mobility was extremely important.

Light rail, introduced by his government to Thailand, was one potential solution, he said.

Right now, he won't find too many people to argue with that on Phuket.