The General Assembly declares that since a third of the population owns bicycles, there is an urgent need for safe bikeways, for the use of both children and adults for transportation, healthy exercise and recreation.
     The General Assembly finds that to coordinate plans for bikeways most effectively with those of the State and local governments as they affect roads, streets, schools, parks, and other publicly owned lands, lands not owned by a municipality, local unit of government, county, or the State of Illinois or one of its agencies or authorities by agreement, abandoned roadbeds and conservation areas, while maximizing the benefits from the use of tax dollars, a single State agency, eligible to receive federal matching funds, should be designated to establish and maintain a State-wide bikeways program.