There are few greater joys as a cyclist than riding a quiet road surrounded by nature. In Iowa, that experience is easy to find: the state’s 50,000 square miles of farmland are rich in rolling, low-traffic roads, giving its nearly one million cyclists access to scenic routes alongside 2,000 miles of multi-use trails and a vast network of rural local, county, and state highways.
But a bill introduced to the Iowa State Legislature on January 28, 2026, by the House Public Safety Committee, threatens to put a stop to that.
House Study Bill 637 (HSB 637) could sharply limit where cyclists are allowed to ride by proposing that, among other limiters, “a person shall not use a device on a roadway with a speed limit above 25 miles per hour.”…