Driving around Knoxville.... (Alcoa, Maynardville, Huntsville: neighborhoods, to live in, dangerous) - Tennessee (TN) - City-Data Forum

linda814 · 10-30-2014, 02:29 PM

We just moved here a month ago from the Detroit area...haven't done a lot of exploring around Knoxville yet but have had to go there twice...yesterday we went to get our licenses and we also made a trip to the airport a week ago...Both times we were on busy roads.. Alcoa Hwy and Maynardville Pike...In Michigan we had the Michigan left..a turn around LANE that was big enough for a few cars to line up in and either wait for the light or go when it was clear...to cross the median...The two roads I mention had breaks in the median with really not much of a lane..it's more like a narrow slit that I saw cars darting out from shopping center driveways.....going across the two lanes and then stopping in the narrow area with their back end sticking out..waiting for a break in what it seemed like a never ending parade of cars. So if a car is on the road and needs to turn also behind him,where are they supposed to wait? To me this is a really dangerous situation...I have never seen such a small area to wait until oncoming traffic clears...thanks for reading!!!!

Barking Spider · 10-30-2014, 04:46 PM

Welcome to Knoxville.........its not Detroit.

danielj72 · 10-31-2014, 03:26 AM

Roads in the Midwest have huge medians, huge shoulders on the side of the road and all the roads are straight. If you are in the country you can see everything around, very rare to get a surprise on the road. Its so flat up there that building roads like the ones they have in Michigan is a lot easier. Driving East Tennessee roads is a very different experience, you really have to pay attention. Hills, mountains, and curves are the norm, and if you take your eyes off the road things get ugly really quickly. I used to live in Michigan and don't ever remember hearing the phrase "Michigan left" but I never lived around the Detroit area. I do understand however how Tennessee roads could possibly give a Midwesterner a bit of a shock. One positive, very few potholes here compared to Michigans crumbling roads. Welcome to East Tennessee.

linda814 · 10-31-2014, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danielj72

Roads in the Midwest have huge medians, huge shoulders on the side of the road and all the roads are straight. If you are in the country you can see everything around, very rare to get a surprise on the road. Its so flat up there that building roads like the ones they have in Michigan is a lot easier. Driving East Tennessee roads is a very different experience, you really have to pay attention. Hills, mountains, and curves are the norm, and if you take your eyes off the road things get ugly really quickly. I used to live in Michigan and don't ever remember hearing the phrase "Michigan left" but I never lived around the Detroit area. I do understand however how Tennessee roads could possibly give a Midwesterner a bit of a shock. One positive, very few potholes here compared to Michigans crumbling roads. Welcome to East Tennessee.

Thanks for the welcome... I guess I should have done some snooping around before I posted my remark because I found Alcoa Hwy's nickname and long time resident's comments about it...for SURE the driving is different..we are in the country on a huge hill..you excelerate all the way up and press the brake all the way down... This is a Michigan left...

Michigan left - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lakehopper · 10-31-2014, 09:04 PM

I went to the link you gave and see what you mean. Wow! that's a lot of road just to make a turn lane but I bet they have a lot more traffic to worry about too. I've been here since Feb and it is really different to me as well when finding a left turn lane. What I have noticed is there usually are those abrupt cuts across from crossroads and parking lots like you are talking about. Then there are some with very short left lanes on some others. Your side of the road will not get the left turn lane when the other side gets theirs. I know I just have to be patient sometimes to find one of those turn lanes and it may be a few cut-overs later before I can double-back!

It's like Barking Spider was kinda saying, "You are not in Detroit anymore..." and we all have to drive differently here. Just wait until it rains and everybody slows down on you. I think it's something about wet roads and sliding off the steep sides but maybe it could be something else. Lack of visibility when it comes down hard does happen too! After driving around 50 mph on roads with snow covered roads in central NY, it did surprise me at first!

Shakeesha · 10-31-2014, 09:40 PM

It's not unique to Michigan as several other cities in the South have adopted this form of left hand turns. In Huntsville they exist along Memorial Parkway (U.S. Highway 231), a separated grade controlled access highway that travels over many major thoroughfares within the city. I have to admit, it looks a bit odd, but works quite well to keep the traffic flowing. Here in Tennessee we have so many traffic lights and intersections at grade that just don't make any sense at all. Why wouldn't you just build an overpass or interchange instead of having a seven lane intersection? The freeways may be small in Florida, but they do interchanges and intersections right. The intersections are usually well lit, marked, give plenty of time to make a stop.

NJDevil · 11-01-2014, 04:38 AM

I wish there were federal guidelines for roads that had to be followed by every state. Many things about the roads are frustrating here. What worries me most often is the lack of shoulders. They don't even give you a foot. There are many large trucks that drive on side roads, and people who can't stay on their side of the road, where are we supposed to go to avoid getting hit? Into a ditch? I just don't understand the planning. It also causes mailboxes to be too close to the road.

linda814 · 11-01-2014, 07:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barking Spider

Welcome to Knoxville.........its not Detroit.

And that's a good thing!!!

linda814 · 11-01-2014, 07:28 AM

[quote=Lakehopper;37101471]I went to the link you gave and see what you mean. Wow! that's a lot of road just to make a turn lane but I bet they have a lot more traffic to worry about too. I've been here since Feb and it is really different to me as well when finding a left turn lane. What I have noticed is there usually are those abrupt cuts across from crossroads and parking lots like you are talking about. Then there are some with very short left lanes on some others. Your side of the road will not get the left turn lane when the other side gets theirs. I know I just have to be patient sometimes to find one of those turn lanes and it may be a few cut-overs later before I can double-back!

It's like Barking Spider was kinda saying, "You are not in Detroit anymore..." and we all have to drive differently here. Just wait until it rains and everybody slows down on you. I think it's something about wet roads and sliding off the steep sides but maybe it could be something else. Lack of visibility when it comes down hard does happen too! After driving around 50 mph on roads with snow covered roads in central NY, it did surprise me at first![/QUOTE

We didn't know where we were going first off and my husband kept making u turns at the green lights to get where we wanted to be...he said there wasn't a sign that you couldn't make a u turn so he did...I KNOW you can't...I just shut up as usual!!!!

Lakehopper · 11-01-2014, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJDevil

I wish there were federal guidelines for roads that had to be followed by every state. Many things about the roads are frustrating here. What worries me most often is the lack of shoulders. They don't even give you a foot. There are many large trucks that drive on side roads, and people who can't stay on their side of the road, where are we supposed to go to avoid getting hit? Into a ditch? I just don't understand the planning. It also causes mailboxes to be too close to the road.

I know what you are saying here! There are federal guidelines for federal roads. To change things enough from what they were planned so long ago, many neighborhoods would have to be "leveled" to straighten out what worked back then. To make them wider, land would have to be "taken" form real people. Some roads were built where nobody would even think of building them now... and we sometimes take these roads because they show us scenery that we could not see on those more modern roads.

There are many people who live on these narrow, twisty roads and that's just the way it is. The larger roads here have actually improved as other states have managed to as well. Respect for personal property rights, geographic restrictions, weather conditions, political/tax planning, and who knows what else, makes the roads here and other places what they are.

It is what it is and sometimes these differences all add up to why we want to be here in the first place. Can you imagine driving through the mountains to see Cades Cove or even Clingmans Dome on roads like in Detroit? Of course, roads that have nicknames like "The Dragon" and "Devil's Triangle" would have to be scrapped entirely...