While many Iowans use their phones or a navigation system to find their way around, some rely on tried-and-true paper maps, which are still available for free.
Mark Hansen, a DOT transportation planner, says the 2025-26 edition of the Iowa Transportation Map is now out, and it remains one of the agency’s most popular publications.
About 750,000 copies are being printed this time, fewer than half of the 1.6 million printed a decade ago.
“I believe the older Iowans do continue to use the maps, yes, and I think there is a higher level of appreciation for even the younger generations now after they have ran into a couple problems with Google Maps,” Hansen says, “perhaps Google Maps not being up to date, and I think they rely on the DOT’s transportation map for current information.”
The new map has a monarch on the cover, as Interstate 35 was renamed the Monarch Highway to celebrate the iconic butterfly species and the migration route it shares with motorists along the I-35 corridor. Seven bridges between Ankeny and Ames on I-35 are being rebuilt, and will feature a unique monarch wing pattern design in the brickwork. Hansen says there are a few other changes.
“We have four-lane US 30 in Benton County, west of Cedar Rapids, and then another US 30 item would be a new interchange east of Interstate 35 in Story County,” Hansen says, “and Decatur City in southern Iowa officially changed their name to just Decatur, and that’s an official process that they went through.”
This new edition of the Iowa map shows 939 cities statewide, in addition to several hundred unincorporated areas.
“There are no cities that were added and no cities were removed,” Hansen says. “We had one that disincorporated, Randalia in Fayette County. It went through the official process to go from an official city to what we call an unincorporated area, so a village, a town, whatever term you would like to use.”
So why do some people still seek out the paper map when there’s one on our phones? In addition to their reliability and lack of needing a battery, Hansen says paper maps provide you with an overall view, the big picture.
“I have one on my wall in front of me and I use it every day, but understanding the route that you can take from Council Bluffs to Dubuque is important as opposed to just viewing it on a three-inch phone screen,” Hansen says. “That gives you maybe the quickest route, but sometimes the quickest route isn’t the best route to take.”
In addition to highways, the map shows airports, rail lines, lakes, rivers, and major county roads, along with detail maps for the state’s 16 largest cities. There’s also a chart to find mileage between select Iowa cities, and an index of cities along with their populations.
The free maps are available at all Iowa rest areas, welcome centers, driver’s license stations, and all six DOT district offices. There’s also an online version at iowadot.gov/travel-tools/maps along with a mobile app version.