A reminder there are several road closures and traffic disruptions as the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) rolls through Greene County today.

The official route into Greene County from Carroll County starts on County Road E-53 into the City of Jefferson, with the main stretch through Jefferson being on Lincoln Way. City Administrator Scott Peterson says local residents should plan carefully to avoid crossing Lincoln Way the majority of today.

“Any of the intersections on Lincoln Way from Grimmell (Road) over to the east side (of town), all of those intersections, north (and) south, will be blocked and they would be impassable then to traffic. There’ll be bikes rolling through here and really does have an impact then on people being able to travel from the northside of town to the south. So again plan your day accordingly because those intersections will all be blocked.” 

Jefferson Matters Executive Director Matt Wetrich says there are about ten vendors around the downtown square and most of the bicyclists are anticipated to be in Jefferson between 9am and 1pm. The route then continues on 235th Street east of Jefferson, through the s-curve, to Iowa Highway 144, south to County Road P-40 into Rippey, then west on County Road E-57 into Boone County. 

Iowa State Patrol will also handle traffic control through Greene County, along with a team of troopers helping to push the riders along into the next overnight stop in Ames later today by 6pm. District Four Resource Officer Trooper Shelby McCreedy urges motorists to know the RAGBRAI route and be as safe as possible.

“The other challenge that we really have, RAGBRAI promotes the ‘ride right,’ the bicyclists don’t have the legal right to use both lanes of a highway, but because of the numbers (of RAGBRAI participants) they do. When there’s traffic coming against them it provides a recipe for disaster because you’ve got bikes trying to get over in large numbers, it’s close quarters. It seems like an epic game of Jenga sometimes.”  

McCreedy adds for motorists to be patient as RAGBRAI moves along the route today and for onlookers to avoid certain areas, such as the City of Rippey.