The Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization has prepared a Knoxville biking “report card.”
Suffice it to say the area doesn’t offer much as far as amenities specifically designed for cyclists: 285 bike racks in an urban area of 377,000 people, with a whopping 4 miles of bike lanes.
If you want to ride anywhere in this city, you better be comfortable ridding alongside vehicular traffic.
The only way to feel comfortable in Knoxville traffic on a bike is to feel militant.
Yes, militant is a pretty good description. You also need to possess a foolish sense of invincibility.
It probably can be done. The main thing is to remember that you have an equal right to the road as the cars do. I never biked when I lived in Knoxville, but do bike here in SF. One of the big advantages of biking in SF is more cyclists create some amount of awareness. However, there are also lots of parked cars on the road meaning that you are in danger of someone opening their door at the wrong time.
btw, you’ve still not told us about the new bike that you bought.