Hundreds of miles in trails and businesses built around traffic highlight the lifestyle of biking in Iowa
Words and Photos by Turner Olson
The biking obsession is real in Iowa. Hundreds of miles of biking trails and byways can be found across the state. Efforts have been made by the state encourage people to bike in both urban and rural areas.
Iowa’s byways offer scenic views of the countryside and an alternative mode of travel. The state has 11 byways that are a great way to experience Iowa’s natural beauty, history and culture.
“Our lovely farm-to-market road system can create low traffic routes all over the state,” said Mark Wyatt, executive director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition.
Cumming Tap located in Cumming Iowa.
The Iowa Bicycle Coalition is designed to build partnerships, educate Iowans on bike safety and help make bike travel more enjoyable.
“Our primary efforts are focused on safety and reducing fatal crashes involving bicyclists,” Wyatt said. “We are also working to grow bicycling and bicycle tourism.”
Bicycle and pedestrian educational materials are available from the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) at no cost to Iowa residents. The materials include a 17-lesson safety program, bicycle helmet video, bicycle rodeo guide, and a variety of items like magnets, spoke sliders, bookmarks, stickers, posters, reflective dots, safety tips for sharing the road and etiquette for using Iowa’s off-road trails.
“There is all kinds of bicycling in Iowa. Racing, cyclocross (cross country racing on bikes), triathlon, single track, trails, and more,” Wyatt said. “There is really something for anyone to do on two wheels.”
Research says biking can help you stay younger. King’s College London compared more than 2,400 identical twins and found those who did the equivalent of three 45-minute rides a week were nine years “biologically younger” than their twins, even after discounting other influences.
If that wasn’t enough, research carried out at Harvard University found men aged 50 or older who cycle at least three hours a week have a 30 percent lower risk of impotence than those who exercise very little.
The benefits of biking are numerous — not only for personal health, but also for the environment.
A bike rack located outside Cumming Tap.
Twenty bicycles can be parked in the same space as one car. It takes around five percent of the materials and energy used to make a car to build a bike, and a bike doesn’t produce any pollution.
Iowa has over 550 miles of trails for biking, skating, and walking. Sixty of those can be found within Des Moines, Iowa’s capitol city.
Many trails in Iowa combine scenic river valleys with farmland. Farmland (although not normally seen as a plus) is an important aspect to the scenery that appeals to bikers in the state.
“There is plenty of character on the trails and it is constantly changing,” said Andrea Boulton, “You can start in a bigger city, hit a smaller town for lunch, another for pie, stop and see a winery, stay in a bed and breakfast… and reverse it all again the next day.”
Boulton is the director of trails and greenways for Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. She works with cities, counties and community groups to develop multi-use trails across Iowa.
“I’m involved in everything from securing the land needed to build a trail, writing grant applications and fundraising for dollars needed to build a trail, guiding communities and counties through grant administration processes, working with engineers to determine design needs and — of course — promoting completed trails.” Boulton said.
The all-encompassing nature of Boulton’s job speaks to the variety of reasons people ride a bike.
Two men stop outside Cumming Tap during their ride.
“Most people ride for pleasure and exercise, but many are venturing into commuting to work shopping as well,” said Georgie Libbie, president of the Des Moines Cycle Club. “And, of course, being famous for RAGBRAI, Iowans all over the state are very aware of cycling, as well as the revenue it brings in.”
The Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) is a weeklong biking event with stops in various towns along the way. People come from all over the country to participate.
Everyday, one of the towns on the route is designated as a meet-up point for all the bikers. It allows them a chance to see people and places they might not otherwise.
“The year we rode, we got the opportunity to meet people all across the state. We talked to people in all the small towns we passed through, interacted with the scout troops, and heard stories about what made each town unique,” said biker Travis Thornbrough. “For me, some of the best memories that I have with cycling are the people that I met along the way and the stories I’ve heard.”
The community atmosphere does not take away from the physical and mental challenge the course represents.
“It’s an event that understands its grueling, physical nature, during one of the harshest portions of the year in Iowa, but it is still one big rolling party,” Thornbrough said. “It serves as a celebration of the State of Iowa, and on any given day during the ride you can experience every aspect of the state’s identity.”
However, RAGBRAI is just one of many bike events that can be found in the state of Iowa. Boulton’s organization works to build businesses around the bike trails.
“We see our organization shifting to help string together properties to trail corridors and continuing to assist in their development.” Boulton said.
The Cumming Tap, for example, hosts a bike ride every Tuesday from 4-11 p.m. These rides are much more casual than a race like RAGBRAI. People enter and exit along the 8-mile trail as they please, and the Cumming Tap acts as a pit stop along the way.
Like other businesses who have started catering to the dedicated group, the bar is set up to bring in bike traffic. From the free air pump out back, numerous bike racks and large outdoor areas to the food provided by Tacopocalypse, the event shows how deeply bike culture is rooted bike culture in Iowa.
To capitalize on the growing number of bikers, the city of Des Moines is focused on integrating bikers into the city. The city’s extensive trail network, grid street pattern and mild weather (compared to other Midwest cities) make it a good place to bike.
But Des Moines receives its fair share of inclement weather, and biking in the city doesn’t stop just because the weather becomes difficult. To illustrate this point, the Des Moines Metropolitan Planning Organization keeps track of the number of people who use the bike racks on the front of our public buses.
“Last year there were over 53,000 uses of this multimodal partnership,” Boulton said. “In the first three months of this year alone, that number totaled over 9,000.”
While the reasons to bike vary for many, it is clear the state has made it a priority to connect both rural and urban areas to bike trails.
“The state of Iowa is a leader in the installation of bike trails in both cities and connecting rural communities,” said Thornbrough, “One of the best parts of being a cyclist in the state is having the resources and interest from people at all levels that make the sport fun.”
