The first part of the year used to herald the annual arrival of two Map Days. One, in late winter, would be the release of the full RAGBRAI map in a Des Moines Sunday Register. That appears to have been discontinued in favor of trickling out daily maps on the website; a composite map of the entire route isn’t released until later (there’s one for 2017 now).
The second, a more recent Map Day, is when the Iowa DOT puts the new state map online. The widespread release of the paper copy follows soon after. In 2015, the first year of a newly established two-year cycle, the map didn’t come out until the beginning of May and the print version didn’t get an official announcement until June.
I’m kind of surprised that there wasn’t an online-only “updated 7-1-16” version to show the US 71/IA 196/IA 471 shuffle, but the only precedent for that would be a late inclusion of new US 34 in 2014.
This time, even if May/June is going to be the new time-frame for releases, I think there’s a second reason for a delay in issuing a new map — the DOT is waiting for Gov. Terry Branstad to resign. The governor has a “Welcome to Iowa” message on the back of each map; the lieutenant governor’s photo was added in 2000.
I pointed out in 2015 that an odd-year printing would sync up with gubernatorial elections — inauguration in January, map in March(ish). But a modern mid-term resignation is not something Iowa has experienced; the closest is when Robert David Fulton* was governor for 16 days in 1969 until Robert Ray was inaugurated (and it was Ray’s name on the map).
If there wasn’t a delay, and Reynolds lost in 2018, the state map would never feature the face of Iowa’s first female governor. So, since there’s less of a rush to put a map out than even a decade ago, it makes sense to take the time. Branstad won’t be confirmed as ambassador to China until the first week of May at the absolute earliest, but a 2017-18 map released on Memorial Day 2017 is better than a 2017 road atlas issued on Tax Day 2016.
*Had Branstad served out the current term, Iowa would have gone 50 years with only four governors. Instead, Iowa will go just over 47.