If your trip to work takes you down St. Paul Street or North Clinton Avenue, you'll notice some changes.
For the first time since the 1960s, beginning today, St. Paul Street - between Cumberland Street and Main Street - will go from one-way to two-way.
Beginning Friday, North Clinton Avenue - between Cumberland Street and Main Street - will also go from one to two ways. City Engineer Jim McIntosh says signs are up to remind you, but drive carefully.
"We're gonna have two-lanes of traffic heading in the direction that used to be the one way direction, and one lane of traffic heading the opposite way, with parking. So, the roads will function similarly to what they were as far as capacity and all those kind of things," said McIntosh.
McIntosh was on Wednesday’s "Connections with Evan Dawson" on WXXI. He believes the changes will help traffic and make it easier for buses to get to the new RTS terminal on Mortimer Street when it opens after Thanksgiving.
Traffic on another street, Division Street, which connects St. Paul and Clinton - a block north of Main - will switch tomorrow (Friday) from one way westbound to one way eastbound.
St. Paul Street between the Inner Loop and Main Street has two lanes going south, one going north, with parking. Beginning Friday, Clinton Avenue North in that same stretch will have two lanes going north, and one southbound.
McIntosh cautioned, "Be careful. Obey the signs. I think the first time or two you go down there you just have to be a little alert and maybe do some defensive driving in case someone else gets confused with the new configuration."
McIntosh said the city looked into the change on request of the St. Paul Neighborhood Association.
Here is a map furnished by the City of Rochester:
