Taking the bus to work may not be an easy option for many in the Knoxville area. In a recent study, the city ranks low when it comes to public transit.
The Brookings Institution looked at 371 transit providers in the nation's top 100 metro areas. It found 44.3% of jobs in the Knoxville Metro Area are in places with public transit service. This earns Knoxville a ranking of 98 out of 100.
Metro areas like New York, LA and Seattle took some of the top spots. But Knoxville Area Transit says it's not fair to compare the Knoxville metro to much larger areas.
"What the study is looking at is how the entire metro area is doing with this entire five county region," said Belinda Woodiel-Brill, Director of Marketing and Development for KAT. "What happens is if you don't look at the study well, you may say, 'Hey! KAT's providing horrible service, apparently, we're 98th out of 100!' But that's sort of saying, 'Gosh KAT, why aren't you providing really good transit services to Blount County?' Well, that's not our job."
You can read the full study here.