What's traffic like in Chattanooga? (Knoxville: home, to buy, school)

[Pixelpie]

Greetings,
Considering moving to Chattanooga and I am curious to know how bad the traffic is? Are the roads well planned? We'd be moving from the Austin,Tx area which is a nightmare parking lot most days. Do you have toll roads? We are looking to purchase home outside of city (we want some acres) and commute.

Thank you!

[Creekcat]

No toll roads. Any idea where you are going to buy home? That would help give you ideas on traffic and commute. Although I believe you would find the traffic here more tolerable than what you're used to, I would guess.

[SPLIT]

"P" ,,WELCOME,, This am with temps around 32 degrees there are Two major interstate shut down. I-24 coming downthehill into city hasa slow speed curve that truck overturn ... Also on #27 I in the city has two crashes shouting down the road..
The last year and half had a major widen of divided #27 which helps North South directionontheWEST side of River... This is where you would find acreage you mentioned, like up towards Soddy Daisy.
EAST side along I-75 is major congestion with the business park of VW. .. Again NO. TOLL places, but East West direction a challenge as there is a lake DAM to cross going to Airport ,car dealers, medical, and major Mall.

[An Einnseanair]

To start with, traffic in Chattanooga will not be on the same level as Austin. Not even close.

That said, every large town or city has local traffic problems. Looking at I-75, I-24, and I-59, they form an "X" connecting Nashville, Knoxville, Atlanta, and Birmingham, with Chattanooga right in the middle. All traffic going from the east side of the "X" to the west side travels along the section of I-24 from where it starts (ends?) at I-75 to where I-59 branches off. It is a major bottleneck, and it has several natural and man-made traffic obstacles (the climb up and over Missionary Ridge, the 90° curves at top and bottom, the steep hills west of Tiftonia, etc.). During rush hour, when you combine all the commercial truck traffic with all the commuters, it can get pretty bad.

Add to this the natural barriers with only a few crossings (TN River, Missionary Ridge, various other ridges, mountains, and rivers). There are a few places with major backups every day at rush hour.

[Pixelpie]

Thank you for the information!

[southernexpat]

I'm from Atlanta and planning a move up to Chattanooga. I just spent two days there this week and when someone mentioned how bad the traffic had been that morning, I actually thought she was joking (she wasn't).

I imagine Austin's traffic might be slightly better than Atlanta's, but I'd wager you will have a similar reaction. A 14 mile drive took me about 20 min. at the height of rush hour going with traffic. Today, I had to be somewhere by 9:00, and even going through a school zone the 10 mile drive took less than 15 min. Today's drive did not involve the Interstate, but did include a 4-lane hwy going in toward Chattanooga from the Brainerd area.

I think traffic is all relative and really it's all about how you approach it. If you accept that it's part of your day and you can listen to a podcast, music, or think of it as time alone, it's not a problem.

[An Einnseanair]

Originally Posted by southernexpat

I'm from Atlanta and planning a move up to Chattanooga. I just spent two days there this week and when someone mentioned how bad the traffic had been that morning, I actually thought she was joking (she wasn't).

I imagine Austin's traffic might be slightly better than Atlanta's, but I'd wager you will have a similar reaction. A 14 mile drive took me about 20 min. at the height of rush hour going with traffic. Today, I had to be somewhere by 9:00, and even going through a school zone the 10 mile drive took less than 15 min. Today's drive did not involve the Interstate, but did include a 4-lane hwy going in toward Chattanooga from the Brainerd area.

I think traffic is all relative and really it's all about how you approach it. If you accept that it's part of your day and you can listen to a podcast, music, or think of it as time alone, it's not a problem.

TWICE this week major wrecks have occurred on I-24W right past Missionary Ridge just before rush hour that shut down all traffic that direction (that's the people driving toward downtown in the morning). People either had to sit in standstill traffic or fight the mobs trying to fit through the much-lower-capacity tunnels. Relatively few people know how to navigate the maze of historic surface roads that cross over the top of the ridge.

But if you didn't come from that direction you wouldn't have been affected at all.

I do travel that route, but I use the Waze traffic app. The first time I saw the backup in time and diverted way out of the way of both the interstate and primary alternates. My normally 30-min commute was extended by a whole 10 minutes. The second time I had a doctor's appointment and went through long after the wreck was cleared.

All that said, I lived in Kansas City, MO for about a decade. I also routinely drive in such traffic nightmare cities as Atlanta, New Orleans, and Los Angeles for work. An average rush-"hour" in any of those four is far, far worse than a bad rush-hour in Chattanooga. I've never driven in Austin, but I imagine it would be similar to New Orleans (about 1.2-1.5million metro area population). Chattanooga's metro area population is about 0.5million.

There are a few bad bottlenecks that routinely back up at certain times, but if you have any intelligence you'll quickly learn them and how to avoid them.