Troy, NY Public Conduct: Jaywalking (2026)

Pedestrian crossing in the City of Troy, New York (Rensselaer County) is governed by § 270-19 of the Troy City Code, part of the traffic ordinance adopted by the Troy City Council. The section has three parts, and only one of them is an outright mid-block ban.

Subsection A is the citywide default: except where otherwise indicated by a crosswalk or other official traffic-control devices, a pedestrian shall cross a roadway at right angles to the curb or by the shortest route to the opposite curb. That bars diagonal crossing across a street, wherever the pedestrian is.

Subsection B is the Central Business District rule: no pedestrian shall cross a roadway other than in a crosswalk. Downtown in Troy, that makes crossing between crosswalks a violation, which is the conduct commonly called jaywalking. The text of § 270-19 does not map the district's boundaries.

Subsection C gives the Traffic Engineer authority, on the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation, to designate locations where pedestrians are prohibited from crossing the roadway. That prohibition applies when official traffic-control devices are erected and in place. Crosswalk locations themselves come from § 270-12A, which authorizes the Traffic Engineer to install pavement markings to indicate traffic lanes, center lines, channelization islands, parking spaces, crosswalks and other markings, and § 270-12B allows safety zones at places needed for the protection of pedestrians.

Enforcement runs through the Troy Police Department as a traffic matter. Under § 270-8, the City speed limit is 30 miles per hour on streets where the City, not the State of New York Department of Transportation, has jurisdiction.