Transit-Focused Strategies : 48. Give higher priority to the funding of transit, bicycling, carpooling, ferries and other alternative modes of transportation. 49. Employ pricing mechanisms, such as tolls, a registration surcharge, or an annual mileage-based fee, to discourage auto use. 50. Provide incentives to businesses and institutions that embark on or expand existing telecommuting, teleconferencing, or distance-learning programs. 51. Encourage all businesses in the region to provide their employees free public transit passes. Advocate for state tax breaks for businesses that provide “Eco Passes” to their employees. 52. Reduce or eliminate implicit employer parking subsidies; encourage employers to invest the money they would have spent building and maintaining parking lots on public transit rebates for employees. 53. Increase the gas tax or impose other “user” fees to encourage ridesharing, public transportation and more efficient vehicles. Offset the disproportionate impact on low-income workers by reducing state income tax rates for low wage earners. 54. Explore the possibility of reinstituting school buses at public schools to reduce the number of short vehicle trips and traffic congestion near schools. Land-Use Strategies: 55. Encourage the development of “walkable” communities, where shops and activities are within strolling distance of homes. 56. Increase transportation planning funds to communities that approve a certain percentage of new residential development at specified densities, for example a minimum of 15 units per acre. 57. Provide additional transportation funding to localities with light or fixed transit rail systems that approve higher density residential developments within one-quarter to one-half mile of existing or planned public transit stations or routes. 58. Create a regional development credit bank that rewards property development in areas with under utilized transit and other infrastructure. 59. Advocate for state legislation that would reward better coordinated transit and land- use development programs. Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men. Thomas Henry Huxley, English Biologist