Image courtesy of RAGBRAI Facebook page

The 50th Annual Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) is underway and one law enforcement agency continues to provide coverage for the week-long event.

Iowa State Patrol District 4 Resource Officer Trooper Shelby McCreedy says they have two separate teams when RAGBRAI is going on. One of the teams does traffic control along the entire route, in which they take care of intersections that could be problematic for vehicles and bicycles and keep the RAGBRAI participants safe. McCreedy points out the other team helps keep the event moving. She talks about other responsibilities that the state patrol handles.

“We have extra personnel out working the support route because you have a lot of vehicles breaking down during that time. We also have additional enforcement working traffic or any collisions that might take place as a result of the congestion that takes place during RAGBRAI. So really it is a multi-dimensional operation that the state patrol is involved in from a multitude of different angles.”  

McCreedy adds for motorists and other members of the public to be extra aware when RAGBRAI comes through their county or community of the thousands of bicyclists traveling on the roadway. The Iowa State Patrol will have a presence when RAGBRAI comes through Greene County on Tuesday, along the route from when bicyclists leave Carroll that morning to the next overnight stop in Ames that evening.