RAGBRAI 2018 – Showing the Impact of Bicycles on the Local Economy

Each year towns and cities across Iowa play host to well over 15,000 bike riders from all 50 states in an event called the oldest, largest and longest recreational bicycle touring event in the world. RAGBRAI. Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa is essentially a massive rolling celebration that affects every community it touches along the way.

Each day along the 7 day event, riders rise in the mornings in a host community and hop on their bikes to ride roughly 60-75 miles to the next host community. Along the way riders are routed through a number of smaller towns, including a mid-way “Meeting Town”, before arriving at another host community for the night. Overall, the main route of RAGBRAI 2018 went through 46 communities including 8 host communities and 7 meeting towns.

The economic impact of this festival can be staggering. A recent study stated that the economic impact of recreational cyclists’ spending to generate $364.8 million in direct and indirect impacts to the State of Iowa. The direct spending alone during RAGBRAI has been calculated at over $25 million. In a recent article, Iowa City alone expected a direct spending impact of $1 million.

As with any large scale event there are drawbacks. Whenever you get together a group of people that large in a community, big or small, it creates issues. Regardless, the impacts to the local economy, viability, and potential future tourism cannot be understated.

Stay tuned for more posts related to RAGBRAI as there were a number of takeaways from this cross-Iowa stroll through the numerous small communities along the route.

Hanging out in a town square.

It’s RAGBRAI and these are empty.

Bikes as far as the eye can see.

Town square becomes that social gathering spot you want it to be.

It’s Iowa…RAGBRAI, corn, and windmills.

The downtowns become pedestrian plazas, blocked off from vehicle traffic.

Many communities were very patriotic.

Evenings of fun.

Ute, the first meeting town.