Questions on Commuting from Hardin County to Louisville (Frankfort, Elizabethtown: employment, living in)

[The Dissenter]

Hello Louisvillians. I'm anxiously waiting to arrive in the beautiful state of Kentucky via BRAC and ya'll are making me more excited by the day. I've been looking at jobs in Kentucky and from early observations it looks like solid employment is going to be much harder to find in Hardin County (where i'll likely sleep when i first get there) than in Louisville. It looks like i'll be facing quite a commute for awhile. A few questions for ya'll:

1. How many folks would you say commute from Hardin County to Louisville for work?

2. What would be the average commute time if i was going on I-65 to say downtown or St Matthews for work from Ft. Knox and surrounding?

3. Are there any public transportation options or local carpool groups that could make this commute more sane?

4. How hard is that speed limit enforced on I-65 during rush hour? Living in Northern VA, i can do 70 to work (in a 55 mph zone on I-95) and back and not have a cop bat an eye. I know about the 70 mph speed limit. I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you in advance Louisvillians.

[johnsonkk]

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

2. What would be the average commute time if i was going on I-65 to say downtown or St Matthews for work from Ft. Knox and surrounding?

If you're going from Ft Knox to downtown Louisville, plan on an hour for door-to-door. That still may sound better than DC.

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

3. Are there any public transportation options or local carpool groups that could make this commute more sane?

No dedicated public transportation from Ft Knox to Louisville. I'm sure with greater numbers moving in, it's more likely to find carpool groups.

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

4. How hard is that speed limit enforced on I-65 during rush hour? Living in Northern VA, i can do 70 to work (in a 55 mph zone on I-95) and back and not have a cop bat an eye. I know about the 70 mph speed limit. I'm looking forward to it.

You can easily go 75-80 in a 70 coming up on I-65 but there are some heavy speed traps once it goes back down to 55mph (county line). You're going to find that there is no easy way to get to I-65 from Ft Knox. You can either backtrack south to highway 313 then head west to I-65 or you can travel north on Hwy 31W until I-265/Hwy 841.

[EclecticEars]

My responses in bold.

Originally Posted by johnsonkk

If you're going from Ft Knox to downtown Louisville, plan on an hour for door-to-door. That still may sound better than DC.

True. Count on 45-70 minutes, depending on how fast you drive and how bad you catch traffic on the Dixie (31W) or I-65. Average will be about 60, though.

No dedicated public transportation from Ft Knox to Louisville. I'm sure with greater numbers moving in, it's more likely to find carpool groups.

True.

You can easily go 75-80 in a 70 coming up on I-65 but there are some heavy speed traps once it goes back down to 55mph (county line). You're going to find that there is no easy way to get to I-65 from Ft Knox. You can either backtrack south to highway 313 then head west to I-65 or you can travel north on Hwy 31W until I-265/Hwy 841.

Remember, there is a Kentucky State Police Post in Elizabethtown, which is in Hardin County. That post is at I-65 exit #94 (the US 62-Mulberry Street interchange,) giving troopers very easy access to I-65. While I've never seen I-65 heavily patrolled, that KSP post does cover Hardin and Bullitt Counties, both of which I-65 runs through. Just be cautious. I personally would never do more than 75-78 through there.

Now, once you get about 3/4 mile into Jefferson County on I-65, the speed limit does become 55, and yes, that can become a speed trap at times. (Although the speed traps I've seen in Louisville pale in comparison to some others throughout KY, namely the Frankfort/Lawrenceburg area, so I don't fret about it.)

The suggested routes--I-265 (Gene Snyder) to 31W or KY 313 to 31W (Dixie) are the best. You can also ramp off at Shepherdsville and take KY 44 west from I-65 to the Dixie, then Dixie south to Ft. Knox. It trims off some mileage and maybe two minutes, but KY 44 becomes a dangerous, narrow 2-lane road west of Shep. and even narrows down to 1-lane at one point; plus, after days of consecutive rain, it's not uncommon for stretches of KY 44 to be closed. Still, it gives you something to consider.

[missymomof3]

I thought I had heard at one point about being a bus or something from Fort Knox to Louisville, did that not pan out?

[stxdreamer]

Originally Posted by jcm1986

My responses in bold.



Remember, there is a Kentucky State Police Post in Elizabethtown, which is in Hardin County. That post is at I-65 exit #94 (the US 62-Mulberry Street interchange,) giving troopers very easy access to I-65. While I've never seen I-65 heavily patrolled, that KSP post does cover Hardin and Bullitt Counties, both of which I-65 runs through. Just be cautious. I personally would never do more than 75-78 through there.

Now, once you get about 3/4 mile into Jefferson County on I-65, the speed limit does become 55, and yes, that can become a speed trap at times. (Although the speed traps I've seen in Louisville pale in comparison to some others throughout KY, namely the Frankfort/Lawrenceburg area, so I don't fret about it.)

The suggested routes--I-265 (Gene Snyder) to 31W or KY 313 to 31W (Dixie) are the best. You can also ramp off at Shepherdsville and take KY 44 west from I-65 to the Dixie, then Dixie south to Ft. Knox. It trims off some mileage and maybe two minutes, but KY 44 becomes a dangerous, narrow 2-lane road west of Shep. and even narrows down to 1-lane at one point; plus, after days of consecutive rain, it's not uncommon for stretches of KY 44 to be closed. Still, it gives you something to consider.

However, you must be careful about your speed on KY 313. That is a tempting road to run fast on, but in fact is fairly heavily monitored by both local and state police. The speed limit is 55 and many tickets are written there every month.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by missymomof3

I thought I had heard at one point about being a bus or something from Fort Knox to Louisville, did that not pan out?

You are correct, however, it is a plan for passenger rail, not buses. There are currently plans to build a cummeter rail to Ft. Knox, but there is no formal vision for when it could begin. Many local politicians took a "test" run on the route recently probably more for fanfare and political reasons than anything.

Ride the rails | Louisville's Alt-Weekly | LEO Weekly

P&L | cartky.org

If I had to guess, and this is only a guess, I would say this plan has about 25% chance of coming to fruition in the next 5 years.

[missymomof3]

It would be nice if that would happen

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by stxdreamer

However, you must be careful about your speed on KY 313. That is a tempting road to run fast on, but in fact is fairly heavily monitored by both local and state police. The speed limit is 55 and many tickets are written there every month.

Kinda the same way Rt 1 here is Northern VA.

stx12499, thanks for the info on the "proposed" rail, that 25% chance of rail will cause a 75% chance of BRACcies grinding their teeth.

johnsonkk, Actually that sounds better than DC. At least I-65 will be mainly mileage. Forty plus miles in DC and vicinity will take at least two hours on a decent day. I will be on the lookout for those carpool groups.

jcm1986, good looking out on that state police tip. The KY state police cant be half as scary as the Fairfax County police in VA. Can they?

[EclecticEars]

Originally Posted by stxdreamer

However, you must be careful about your speed on KY 313. That is a tempting road to run fast on, but in fact is fairly heavily monitored by both local and state police. The speed limit is 55 and many tickets are written there every month.

That's true. I forgot about that, thanks!

[EclecticEars]

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

Kinda the same way Rt 1 here is Northern VA.

stx12499, thanks for the info on the "proposed" rail, that 25% chance of rail will cause a 75% chance of BRACcies grinding their teeth.

johnsonkk, Actually that sounds better than DC. At least I-65 will be mainly mileage. Forty plus miles in DC and vicinity will take at least two hours on a decent day. I will be on the lookout for those carpool groups.

jcm1986, good looking out on that state police tip. The KY state police cant be half as scary as the Fairfax County police in VA. Can they?

Probably not quite as scary. I've heard that Virginia cops almost get a kick out of pulling people over, period. (A bit of an exaggeration, I realize, but I've heard that the speed limit is, in fact, the speed limit anywhere in VA.)

Kentucky law enforcement, in general and regardless of agency, is pretty good about allowing out-of-staters to travel 5 MPH over the limit and in-state residents 8-10 MPH over the limit before they start pulling people over.

Although, if you ever head out just east of Louisville to the Frankfort and Lawrenceburg area, that place IS cop central; Lawrenceburg probably has more cops per capita than any town in Kentucky and they just loooove speed traps! The only place I've seen worse than that is Atlanta!