Editing Talk:954: Chin-Up Bar

I know the Wheaton Metro station and its escalator very well (I live about 5 miles from there). There are several issues with the comic.
*There isn't a convenient place that the panels showing diagonal motion (1-6 & 10) can be shown from. The entire escalator set is in a solid tube through the rock. I guess that it could be done from the *third* escalator.(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheaton_(WMATA_station) ) (This would be with (viewed from the bottom, the center going up, the left going down and the right either not moving or going up)
*There are emergency cut off boxes both at the top and the bottom of the escalators.
*There is a kiosk about 40 feet from the top of the escalator staffed by an employee next to the fare gates.
*In panel 9 there are two raised disks between the up and down escalators. While this is true in some of the other escalators, the ones for Wheaton are very close together and there is only one column of raised disks.[[User:Naraht|Naraht]] ([[User talk:Naraht|talk]]) 16:41, 28 February 2013 (UTC)
:- What can we learn from this? - That not all of the facts in XKCD comics are right, and some are outright exaggerated (thank you Mr. Naraht). I personally learned that life will keep hurting me on purpose until I figure out how to help myself (Thank you Life and thank you Mr. XKCD for this lesson). - [[User:E-inspired|E-inspired]] ([[User talk:E-inspired|talk]]) 16:46, 28 February 2013 (UTC)
::This is a comic. It's Fiction. It does not claim to be the "Wheaton Metro" escalator anyway - that was in the commentary. Relax. [[Special:Contributions/74.213.186.41|74.213.186.41]] 19:16, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
::: While I agree that Naraht needs to calm down (I used to live 1 mile from the Wheaton Metro, and would walk up it as fast as I could), you cannot say that the comic did not claim to be the "Wheaton Metro."  Black Hat describes it as 70m long, and the longest in the country.  There is only one escalator that fits that description, and it is in Wheaton, Maryland.  It's like seeing them going up an elevator, never seeing what they are ascending, and having one of the people mention that they are going to the top of the tallest free-standing stone structure in the world, 555 feet, 5 1/8 inches.  There is but one structure that fits that description: the Washington Monument.  A description can make a claim without using the exact wording. [[Special:Contributions/108.28.72.186|108.28.72.186]] 03:44, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
::::But this is still fiction, and it is completely OK to make changes to fit the need of the comic. Also drawing someone from a position where you could not put a camera... really? I mean have you any idea how they film TV-series, where there are only two walls in the set? This is exactly the same. This is way to show us what happens, without taking a strange view from the top or where else it would be realistic to have a real camera... ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 04:22, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
:::: This could also be the Ploshchad Lenina metro station in Saint Petersburg, which is both 70 meters in altitude and the longest escalator in Russia (and the world, for that matter).--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.142.122|162.158.142.122]] 23:25, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

Grammatically, the last sentence should be "The people that actually made it to the bottom were unable to use the emergency shutdown because Black Hat had disabled it. ", (adding 'had' to 'disabled') using the past perfect for the last clause because it refers to an earlier time than the time of trying to use the emergency shutdown, even earlier than the events of the first panel. -CFitz [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.221|108.162.231.221]] 10:39, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

The title text does not say "those few who reached the bottom." It says "those few who escaped." Several people could have gotten around the chin-up bar or jumped the divider to get on the down-escalator. The explanation of the title text does not take this into consideration.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.202|108.162.219.202]] 20:20, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
:The last two comments have now been taken into consideration in the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 04:24, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
::The title text does, however, say that the ''stampede'' reached the bottom. The explanation currently reads as if (and goes into detail about) the stampede being is towards the top (and the obstruction) where it is clear that the stampede is against the flow, probably impeded by (at least initially) 'fresh-blood' riders, those who are exhausted/injured from trying to get to the bottom (being helplessly dragged back up), perhaps even the initial individuals who had reached the bottom, struck out at the stop-switch (not working!) and hadn't the breath/wit to also escape before becoming a new obstacle for the others who had the same basic idea. (You may have to run 70 metres ''plus'' the distance unceasingly fed in from the bottom whilst you're trying to run that distance. Gravity-assisted, but not exactly easy if you don't want to fall and find yourself drawn back up again in thus fuss and the general maelstrom of rouling crowd. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.17|172.70.86.17]] 19:55, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

This is, in my opinion, one of the most horrifying xkcd comics. I remember talks about a similar incident in the Moscow subway, when something was blocking the exit from the escalator. Some people, trying to save themselves from the stampede, climbed on top of barriers between the escalators, which were not designed to support such weight, and fell to their death in the bowels of the giant machine. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.182.28|162.158.182.28]] 09:54, 5 September 2017 (UTC)
:Strictly speaking, [https://what-if.xkcd.com/4/ A mole of moles] is many times worse. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.44|172.69.22.44]] 04:02, 16 July 2018 (UTC)
Escalator stampedes are common enough that a paper has been written on it: https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-intelligent-and-fuzzy-systems/ifs179156 - [[Special:Contributions/172.69.55.118|172.69.55.118]] 01:26, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

I first read it as "This is 70 meters. A long longest in escalator. The country" {{User:PoolloverNathan/Signature}} 17:35, 10 June 2021 (UTC)