Editorial: City roads have us going in circles

Traffic lights out; roundabouts in; roundabouts out; traffic lights back in, and now ...

Whanganui District Council is replacing the traffic lights at one of our busiest intersections - the Victoria Ave/Guyton St crossroads - and putting in a temporary roundabout.

No, it's not April 1 ... Whanganui's roading revolution is continuing its chaotic path.

The motorists who actually use the roads, but don't get a say, will simply shrug, grit their teeth and carry on.

We are battle-hardened now. We've been through so much with the turmoil that has rumbled up and down St Hill St and all its intersections over past months, culminating in the dreaded lights on Taupo Quay.

Confused? Perhaps. Baffled? Maybe. But never mind, we don't have time to worry about such things - we have places to go, jobs to do, deadlines to meet.

Whatever hazards and handicaps the council roading department throws in our way, we plough on regardless - we have to get to work, we have to earn a living.

In fact, the proposed central city roundabout - while coming out of left field - may not be such a bad idea.

How about roundabouts replacing all the traffic lights?

That way motorists can get through the city centre much quicker and get on with what they need to get on with. No more sitting idly at a red light staring at empty lanes to your left and right.

Unlikely to happen, of course, as we are in a pedestrian-centric and cyclist-centric environment. Those behind the wheel of a car - which is actually most of us - will just have to suck it up.

★★★Also sucking it up this week has been current leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges.

The National Party head honcho is slowly drowning in his own leak investigation - an inquiry into who made public his travel expenditure.

It was a mildly embarrassing revelation, but something that should have been dealt with by the party behind closed doors.

It has got more embarrassing with Bridges' embarrassing press conference in which he described MP Jami-Lee Ross' reasons for stepping down from Parliament as "a lot embarrassing, potentially".

Political pundit Chris Trotter told Newshub's Duncan Garner that Bridges has "the smell of death" about him.

And the ghouls from Sensing Murder - while still unable to solve anything - are using their faux psychic powers to suggest "something bad happened here".

Will Judith Collins be joining them for next year's series?