The congestion might only be for two relatively brief periods of time every day.

But if it happens to be you in the middle of it all, that's the only thing that matters.

Thurgoona's been acting as Albury's population sink for some years now.

And all the growth projections, with the firm statistical basis of the number of new housing sites coming on line well into the future, mean the Thurgoona Drive-Elizabeth Mitchell Drive intersection is not going to get any better.

It's not just those making the morning commute into Albury or Wodonga's CBD via the freeway.

The rapid growth, for example, of Trinity Anglican College means most cars heading north around 8.30am and south around 3pm have a couple of kids on-board.

Albury Council already knew too well that the current single-lane roundabout was well beyond its use-by date.

The upgrade options were for either traffic lights or a dual-lane roundabout. In the end, it was only on the casting vote of acting mayor Amanda Cohn that the traffic lights option got over the line.

Cr John Stuchbery was strongly opposed to this approach, instead arguing in favour of a dual-lane roundabout.

He said that to spend $2.6 million on "something that is less safe than what is currently there" made no sense.

The rationale that somehow traffic lights are a less-safe option is a curious one.

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After all, you go on a green light and stop on a red.

But also, a driver has the obligation to be prepared at all times for the (very) occasional idiot who runs a red light.

The inherent benefits of a roundabout, of course, is the way it manages to keep traffic constantly flowing, preventing a monumental build-up of vehicles.

The daily reality though is that the experience can be a motorist's version of Russian roulette.

You only have to look at the monster that is the McKoy Street-Melbourne Road intersection in Wodonga to see the inherent, constant danger.