Urban Warrior | Tomorrow's the day to 'Ride or Die'

MAYBE you're already one of the 850,000 people who get on a SEPTA train, trolley, subway or bus each day.

But if you're not, then tomorrow might be a very good time to give it a try.

First, you'd be helping your city, and your region, by demonstrating support for mass transit.

And second?

You just might get your picture taken with a local celebrity.

That's right.

In honor of tomorrow's "Ride or Die" day, during which city leaders are pushing people to give mass transit a try, we're inviting various local notables to come and ride the rails. Or the bus, trolley or subway.

We're putting out the call to the real draw in this city: Eagles cheerleaders. And I think state and local elected officials should hop on board too.

How about you, Mayor Street? John Perzel, speaker of the state House of Representatives? Former Gov. Mark Schweiker, now leader of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce?

This invitation applies to anyone who has any influence in this town, and cares about what happens to one of the few systems that truly pulls our region together: mass transit.

If you do decide to hop onto a train or bus, be prepared to run into the dozens of "straphanger" activists who'll be posted at various stations that day.

"We are hitting the regional rail lines from Market East to 30th Street, distributing leaflets to riders and asking folks to call their legislators," said Marc Stier, organizer of a new grass-roots movement to organize SEPTA riders and push for statewide reform for mass transit.

(To join this effort, log on to http://www.phillytransit.com/, or e-mail info@phillytransit.com.)

Who knows - you may enjoy your trip on public transit so much that you stick with it, which would certainly help SEPTA.

More importantly, tomorrow could be a show of force. You can help remind political power-brokers that there are many people who do care about good transit in our region.

If riders pull together, and get politically organized, we just might wind up with a system we really want.

Just imagine: a system that makes it easy to buy whatever ticket you want, whenever you want. Frequent and reliable schedules, and real-time information about when the next bus or train is coming.

So if you ride SEPTA - or if you simply think there's any chance you might want to do it one day - make sure you're on board tomorrow.