TRANSIT STRIKE: TRANSIT HACKS. Jake Dobkin of Gothamist has posted an intriguing item entitled Transit Hacks: Clever Ways of Getting Where You Need to Go. That means such strategies as taking a Gray Line tourist bus to major city destinations on two-day hop-on hop-off loops, taking PATH to travel on the West Side between Lower Manhattan and 34th Street, or taking MetroNorth to travel on the train line from Grand Central to 125th Street and beyond. The comments are essential, offering refinements on those strategies (and questioning if they all qualify as "hacks"). Dobkin mentions an LIRR Hack for travel around Jamaica, Flatbush Avenue, and Penn Station, but there are other LIRR stations including Woodside, Long Island City, Nostrand Avenue, and East New York. (Just make sure you get the schedules straight.)

Dobkin also solicits other hacks. I can think of two that might qualify.

1. Roosevelt Island Hack. On Roosevelt Island, the tram and the red buses are running, so you can travel by tram between the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island, take a red bus (or walk) around Roosevelt Island, and walk between the Upper East Side and Queens (and vice versa). This turns out to be the way that artist Isamu Noguchi made the trip:

Take the Roosevelt Island Tram from 59th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan across the East River to Roosevelt Island. (You can use your MetroCard!) Exit the tram and either walk North about 1/2 mile on Main Street to the Roosevelt Island Bridge, or hop on the shuttle bus just outside the Tram that regularly circles the island, and exit the bus at the Roosevelt Island Bridge. Walk across the bridge to Vernon Boulevard. Make a left on Vernon Boulevard and walk north 3 blocks to 33rd Road. The entry is at 9-01 33rd Road, between Vernon Boulevard and 10th Street. The walk from the Tram is about 40 minutes; the walk from the bridge is about 10 minutes.

2. Culture Hack. Take transportation operated by cultural centers. For example, The Noguchi Museum runs an Upper East Side shuttle between the museum and the Asia Society (Park Avenue and 70th) on weekends. If the strikes lasts that long, see the museum's website for more details, and check about any schedule changes due to holidays.

Psychologically, there's also the Health Club Hack: Count your walking/bicycling/etc. as health club time. And the Errand Hack: Line up your errands along any path you might take.

Photo: David Marc Fischer