There are immediate steps that can be taken at the local level that do not require a plan for development or zoning amendments. Pleasant, attractive, and safe pedestrian pathways to the station should be established, based on observed foot traffic patterns of daily commuters. Targeted programs with funding and regulatory incentives will be necessary to affect the implementation of transit-friendly development and communities. These programs would further ensure that municipalities will focus efforts to develop station area plans and zoning that foster intensive land uses at the stations and along transit corridors. A site acquisition procedure must be defined to allow public entities or private developers to develop properties along rail corridors that fulfill transit-friendly objectives.
Regional policy needs to be adopted that focuses development at rail stations.
According to research conducted by the National Transit Access Center at the University of California at Berkeley, transit-oriented residential developments that have been successfully implemented benefited from a regional planning focus on concentrating development at rail stations.