Igor Blevin's, "A Native Californian in Knoxville" (Farragut: condo, crime)
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How far away from Knoxville can one live and commute into the city for a reasonable commute?
I'm looking for at least a 1 acre lot (preferably 3+) somewhere in the countryside or small town. What towns are reasonable commuting distance, and what are too far?
How far away from Knoxville can one live and commute into the city for a reasonable commute?
I'm looking for at least a 1 acre lot (preferably 3+) somewhere in the countryside or small town. What towns are reasonable commuting distance, and what are too far?
Commute traffic on I40 is always heavy due to all the cars competing with the long-haul truckers passing through. It is not always gridlock but every few days it is just stop and go like it would be for the toll plaza in San Francisco or the George Washington bridge in NYC. You can't just bypass it taking Kingston Pike, because signals back up too.
What is your tolerance? What do you call reasonable?
Farragut to the west is less than 20 miles, but that I40 congestion can mean an hour getting to work.
Maryville to the south is aslo less than 20 miles. Surface streets with stop signs and stop lights, but you avoid the I40 parking lot.
Seymour to the southeast is 10 miles and may be under a half-hour. It is all on local roads, so I am not sure the commute time. I have only driven it mid day or weekends. You hit signals but it is not congested then. I don't know the congestion level during commute hours.
In the east, Sevierville is a half hour to downtown on paper, but probably twice that in traffic. (I am guessing as I don't live on that side of town.
Oak Ridge is 25 miles to the northwest and you avoid I40 on the Oak Ridge Highway. I don't know how long that takes. If you take the Pellissippi Parkway south to merge I40 and then downtown, you have the worst of both worlds. That would suck.
Lenoir City would be as bad, since it is 30 miles and you can't avoid I40 unless you take South Northshore Drive all the way in.
Crossville in the west is too far.
I would like to think work from home helps relieve congestion, but you would not know it from the near gridlock sometimes on I40 during rush hour.
One thing about the Knoxville rush hour so far is that is short lived. In major cities, rush hour can be 4 hours long at each end of the day, like 5 am until 9 am. Heavy congestion on I40 only lasts an hour or so and then it gets much better. So there is that.
How far away from Knoxville can one live and commute into the city for a reasonable commute?
I'm looking for at least a 1 acre lot (preferably 3+) somewhere in the countryside or small town. What towns are reasonable commuting distance, and what are too far?
If your question is just, where is a good place to buy acreage that is not too far from downtown, I am not the one to ask. Others have more experience with where you can buy land around the Knoxville area.
All I can offer on that subject is that the Knoxville area is not like anything I really experience around a major city in California.
Knoxville is so patchwork and so spread out, you can really find land anywhere. It is just where you find it. It is not like Knoxville is really heavily suburban and you have to go out to the exurbs to get acreage. It is here, there, and everywhere.
If I want acreage, I would probably look out Washington Pike, toward Blaine and Corryton. Not all the way out, but along that corridor.
Maryville has a bunch of areas south and east of downtown with land.
There is land all over, if it is for sale. It is not like you have to live far away.
The biggest wild card is, what is for sale. Developers have been buying up the infill and building on it, so Knoxville is getting filled in a little bit.
There are many people here better than me to recommend where to look for a home on 2-3 acres of land. I would say you have a lot of choices all around Knoxville, without being too far from a job downtown, but the days of large lots in Hardin Valley are over.
Commute traffic on I40 is always heavy due to all the cars competing with the long-haul truckers passing through. It is not always gridlock but every few days it is just stop and go like it would be for the toll plaza in San Francisco or the George Washington bridge in NYC. You can't just bypass it taking Kingston Pike, because signals back up too.
What is your tolerance? What do you call reasonable?
Farragut to the west is less than 20 miles, but that I40 congestion can mean an hour getting to work.
Maryville to the south is aslo less than 20 miles. Surface streets with stop signs and stop lights, but you avoid the I40 parking lot.
Seymour to the southeast is 10 miles and may be under a half-hour. It is all on local roads, so I am not sure the commute time. I have only driven it mid day or weekends. You hit signals but it is not congested then. I don't know the congestion level during commute hours.
In the east, Sevierville is a half hour to downtown on paper, but probably twice that in traffic. (I am guessing as I don't live on that side of town.
Oak Ridge is 25 miles to the northwest and you avoid I40 on the Oak Ridge Highway. I don't know how long that takes. If you take the Pellissippi Parkway south to merge I40 and then downtown, you have the worst of both worlds. That would suck.
Lenoir City would be as bad, since it is 30 miles and you can't avoid I40 unless you take South Northshore Drive all the way in.
Crossville in the west is too far.
I would like to think work from home helps relieve congestion, but you would not know it from the near gridlock sometimes on I40 during rush hour.
One thing about the Knoxville rush hour so far is that is short lived. In major cities, rush hour can be 4 hours long at each end of the day, like 5 am until 9 am. Heavy congestion on I40 only lasts an hour or so and then it gets much better. So there is that.
Thanks I guess I didn't realize I 40 was that bad. We like the Sevierville area but I think it's too far out especially during heavy tourist season.
Maybe I'll have to spend more time looking into the areas around Maryville, oak ridge and Lenoir city.
Do any of those areas offer better public schools?
The above is mess to read because I am anal, so I like to add links to support, etc, but it makes it unreadable.
The format is unreadable, so I have redone it for easier digestion. This is a little more clear. You still have the links above, so you can dig deeper and look at other cities like Sevierville or Lenoir City.
Best Elementary Schools
West Knoxville, Sequoyah Elementary School - Math 85%, Reading 81%
West Knoxville, Farragut Middle School, Knoxville - Math 74%, Reading 65%
Maryville, Sam Houston Elementary School - Math 70%, Reading 60%
Maryville, Foothills Elementary School - Math 60%, Reading 65%
Oak Ridge, Woodland Elementary School - Math 50%, Reading 40%
Oak Ridge, Glenwood Elementary School - Math 45%, Reading 40%
Best High Schools
West Knoxville, Farragut High School - Math 35%, Reading 72%
West Knoxville, LN Stem Academy - Math 25%, Reading 80%
Maryville, Maryville High School - Math 20%, Reading 67%
Maryville, William Blount High School - Math 22%, Reading 43%
Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge High School - Math 16%, Reading 57%
The lists above were just taking the best couple of schools in each city. This does not mean that say, the top school in Maryville is better than the top 3-5 in West Knox. I just wanted to give a quick representation, best vs. best for the 3 cities. If I a made a list of best 20 elementary shools, for all I know it could be several are West Knox before one in Maryville or Oak Ridge. I don't know - I didn't dig that far.
Parents like West Knox. Schools improve with wealthier, active parents. It becomes self fulfilling.
Last edited by Igor Blevin; 12-04-2022 at 08:32 AM..
Thanks I guess I didn't realize I 40 was that bad. We like the Sevierville area but I think it's too far out especially during heavy tourist season.
Maybe I'll have to spend more time looking into the areas around Maryville, oak ridge and Lenoir city.
Do any of those areas offer better public schools?
I40 is really bad but not for hours at a stretch. If you can flex when you start and end your work day, a bit earlier or later, you can beat the worst of it and have an OK commute. Don't let it terrify you. This isn't Los Angeles where you are commuting 45 miles in gridlock. It is just 10-15 miles and doesn't last that long.
It is not like the entire 10 mile stretch is stop and go. It varies day to day where that 3-mile stack up bottleneck is. So you are really only talking about 3 or 4 miles of stop and go in that 15 mile commute. This isn't the San Francisco bay bridge toll plaza or the Holland Tunnel.
It is not that long for not that much time not all along the route. It can be worked around if you have the shift freedom and it is not a deal breaker if you don't. It is just a "con" among Knoxville pros and cons.
You also have surface streets if you are south of I40. Not really so much in the north, as you end up taking a long circuitous route just to avoid freeway congestion. You don't gain anything. You may be moving, but a lot longer distance overall. It is not worth it.
Last edited by Igor Blevin; 12-04-2022 at 08:34 AM..
How far away from Knoxville can one live and commute into the city for a reasonable commute?
I'm looking for at least a 1 acre lot (preferably 3+) somewhere in the countryside or small town. What towns are reasonable commuting distance, and what are too far?
Not all the good jobs are in downtown Knoxville. There are numerous manufacturers and other companies in the outlying towns and suburbs, and Oak Ridge is a major employer, so if you worked and lived in Oak Ridge there's no commute at all.
For acreage that's a commutable distance to downtown you might try Hall's, Powell, Karns, and the areas around Clinton and Oak Ridge. I can't tell you how the traffic would be, but the highways are smaller and don't get interstate traffic.
Not all the good jobs are in downtown Knoxville. There are numerous manufacturers and other companies in the outlying towns and suburbs, and Oak Ridge is a major employer, so if you worked and lived in Oak Ridge there's no commute at all.
For acreage that's a commutable distance to downtown you might try Hall's, Powell, Karns, and the areas around Clinton and Oak Ridge. I can't tell you how the traffic would be, but the highways are smaller and don't get interstate traffic.
As I feel priced out of the home market in my prefered West Knoxville, I am warming up to Powell and Halls Crossroads.
I am still struggling to love Maryville. I love visiting, but it just doesn't "feel like home". There are areas I could settle for, but why when I have other areas around Knoxville I already prefer?
Powell and Halls Crossroads have potential. Even Corryton is not out of the question, since I am retired and don't have to commute anywher, but Corryton is really empty at this time. Maybe Karns as well. If I can't afford a home I like in West Knox, it opens several other options.
One of my bigger cons with Knoxville is walkability. I never expected Knoxville to be like my time in San Francisco where you could do all of your errands within a mile on foot if desired. My ideal is at least sidewalks so you can get in some walking without always resorting to downtown or parks, and having subdivisions connected so you can walk from one to another.
From the linked source "Walkscore", Knoxville has a 31 walkability. I am near Farragut, which has a 19 walkability. 50 means you don't HAVE to use the car for every single little thing.
According to Walkscore, there are no walkable cities in the state of Tennessee, meaning every city is either completely or mostly car dependent.
FWIW, Cookeville is the "most walkable" Tennessee city at 35, along with Memphis
I do admit this is a con that I am struggling to get used to. It is not enough alone to push to move elsewhere, as there is so much I like about living here, but it has been frustrating trying to adapt to having to drive so much and not having a better selection of good walks around town, whether for recreation or for simple errands.
The other issue is, it is just going to be less imporant as I age into elder-related mobility problems, so why move to a city where walkability is better but I give up benefits living here, only to find I am more limited at with walking as I age.
It is still one of my very top criticisms of the area. I am fortunate in that I can walk to Target and Publix from my apartment, so I can enjoy those walks on a regular basis when all I need is a carton of milk or a loaf of bread.
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