It's true that while cars coming down Congress could continue past River down to Front Street, the steep drop-off makes it rather intimidating; as it is, drivers sometimes make the right turn here already, even though it is marked one way (there is no "do not enter" or "no right turn" sign). This block of River Street (between Congress and State) is certainly wide enough for two-way traffic, and especially if River between First and State were to be fully pedestrianized (the mayor has talked about this in general, but as far as I know has never mentioned specific streets) having easier access to the parking garage on State between River and Front would be a plus.

Anonymous wrote: "Go straight. Turn right. Turn right. Turn right. You're on river street."

If you already know that Front Street is one-way northbound, sure - I would probably do that myself. But from Congress, you can't see what's down that steep block until you are committed to it, and with the difficulty that so many people from outside Troy seem to have with all of our one-way streets, I suspect out-of-towners are as likely as not to make the left, cross the bridge, and leave Troy behind. We should instead be encouraging people to stop in Troy, park their cars, and walk around. Doing that will help support our local businesses and improve the local economy, little by little.

They're not forced over the Congress Street Bridge when Front Street is open.

I've lived in and drove around in Troy since 2005. I didn't even know front street was a street.

The ONLY time I go to the end of congress street is when I need to cross the bridge into Watervliet.

I didn't even know you could go straight at that intersection.

I agree with the poster that you should be able to turn right at that intersection.

When you come down Congress St to River St you see a vacant building for sale. People assume there is nothing more and they go with the flow of traffic (or get caught up in it)...right over the bridge. We need to give people another clear option to be able to loop back and explore the city, instead of being frustrated looking at Troy from Watervliet. I know there has been a lot of interest in the vacant building on the corner of River & Congress, and the new owners of the building next to Pesha's flower stop are going to start renovation soon. Turning lower River St into a 2-way would be beneficial for local businesses, residents and the City of Troy.

Perhaps a large sign at the intersection on congress would help. One of those big "home of uncle Sam" signs like the one down by rt. 378 placed at or near that intersection telling people that they could go down the hill to access the parking garage might help people getting to the businesses.

I'm just afraid that opening only that one block to two way traffic would cause confusion at the corner of river and state, and river is too narrow for two way traffic beyond the pub there at state.

That shouldn't be a problem. The traffic sign that would be placed at State & River would let drivers know to turn right or left only.

A "Do Not Enter" sign on River and State facing northbound traffic should make it pretty clear - and the narrowness of River north of state would provide a strong contextual suggestion as well.

Interestingly, I just noticed yesterday (for the first time ever) that the alley between the two Sage parking lots along the north side of Congress is actually one-way *northbound*. Google Maps calls it 1st St. Alley, as you can see on the mini-map on this page, but I have never seen a sign with that name - you can see it in Google Maps Streetview at http://g.co/maps/zhm3n. This is the opposite of all the other alleys in downtown north of Congress, which are one-way southbound (Franklin St between 2nd & 3rd, Williams St between 4th & 5th) or two way (Frear Alley between 1st & 2nd, Church St between 3rd & 4th). I'm not sure if there are any other one-way northbound alleys anywhere in downtown Troy.

So in theory, if you want to get onto River from Congress, you don't need to loop around on Front Street, but could cut through 1st Street Alley instead. In practice, however, I doubt anybody who doesn't live or work on the adjacent blocks, or park in the Sage lots there, would ever think of doing so; the narrowness of the alley makes it pretty unappealing even to the few who might think of it.

Time to wake up our inert city council members and make them aware that this problem could be solved quickly and easily.