Or, hey, stay home.

Inventive ideas for braving a bus and subway strike were kicking around Thursday — just in case.

And some straightforward ones, too.

"I'm telling my staff to take a cab if they need to," said Richard Steier, editor of The Chief, a weekly that covers the city's labor unions.

Rick Muller, who works for the Manhattan borough president office, has an uncommon alternative to mass transit -- a "kick bike." With neither pedals nor gears, its aficionados propel the Finnish-made conveyance with one swinging foot, like a scooter.

"I'm over 200 pounds, so I need something stable that can take the bumps and potholes," he said. In the event of a strike, Muller will ride his vehicle, which sells for $329, from his apartment in the East Village, though he said it's good for far longer distances.

"It's probably double the work of a regular bicycle, but I love the freedom of movement and I like that it's good exercise, since I'm a desk jockey," he said.

Noah Budnick of Transportation Alternatives Inc. said the average subway commute is less than 5 miles, so a strike could turn the city into a huge and varied exercise room, even with rain, slush and cold temperatures expected. His Manhattan nonprofit promotes bicycling and walking to defeat traffic and pollution and is happy to see the city government putting out additional bicycle racks at offices such as the Municipal Building to help make room for an increase in employees arriving on bicycles.

Some private companies have purchased bike racks as well, he said.

"Most people are just wishing the strike doesn't happen," said Harry Schwarzman, who works for a bicycle shop on the Upper East Side. "That's the main coping mechanism."

Budnick also said he has heard about those who are buying traditional scooters with handlebars.

At least a few New Yorkers outside Manhattan are exploring paddling across the East River in canoes, given the usual paucity of ferry service and the short distance (albeit sometimes treacherous currents) from shore to shore. Still, New York Water Taxi said it would provide extra ferry service to lower Manhattan from Long Island City in Queens and from Bay Ridge in Brooklyn if a strike occurred, said Budnick.

The speedy ferry costs $6 each way.

Reserving a Manhattan hotel room is another way to go, but hotel managers who were interviewed said they discerned no immediate increase in occupancy rates.

Then again, there's that old standby: staying put.

"We told our students to check their radio or television at 6 a.m. and if there's a strike, don't come to school," said Sister Joan Franks, principal of the Dominican Academy, a Catholic high school in Manhattan for 259 girls from across the New York region.