You can't leave the gym

[bhskittykatt]

So I go to a 24-hour gym. I go there early mornings after my paper route.

I was on a crosstrainer near the door, and I saw a new member trying to leave (at least, she was new for the 5am crowd). For the door, there's a static bar handle that doesn't actually do anything, and a panic bar below it that actually lets you out. The panic bar, admittedly, does blend in well with the way it is placed between the two window panes on the door.

So this poor gal couldn't leave the gym. She was pushing on the dummy handle and nothing was happening. She then took her key fob and tried to swipe in near the sensors that beep when someone goes through without a fob. I didn't want to embarrass her by speaking up and basically admitting that I noticed, but she was sinking fast. After about 40 seconds of going back and forth between the dummy bar and the sensors, she finally looked around desperately and made eye contact with me. I was able to talk her through it, though when I said "Below where you were pushing," she at first tried to push the sensors (which are actually beside the door).

I hope she wasn't too embarrassed (I've done the same things with those doors). She had that kind of lost-puppy look and seemed to be a bit intimidated by the gym. Hopefully she wasn't scared off.

In my head though, part of me was thinking "You're now trapped in the gym! Muahahaha! You cannot escape! You must suffer the treadmill forever!"

[dalesys]

Bad workout! No exit for you!

[PepperElf]

aw... poor lady.

I bet she's going to whenever she sees this comic...

[dalesys]

I bet she's going to whenever she sees this comic...

Meh. I attended Midvale JHS.

[PepperElf]

i had no idea it really existed. i figured he just made it up.

[bhskittykatt]

i had no idea it really existed. i figured he just made it up.

You probably also had no idea that Dalesys was the one that actually inspired that comic, too. *runs and hides*

[dalesys]

You probably also had no idea that Dalesys was the one that actually inspired that comic, too. *runs and hides*

My best friend... We were both 4'8", but he weighed 80 pounds more than I did.

[MoonCat]

Reminds me of when the bus company first got in some new buses...they had stickers near the signal things (to alert the driver that you wanted the next stop) that said "push here"---so people pushed on the stickers.

They don't use that type of signal any more

[Cazzi]

Also at the gym I had a very confused lady ask me how to get a locker key out of the lock, I said, pop a coin in the slot, lock the door, pull out the key.. standard thing really.

Then had to really bite my cheeks as she went down a row of lockers throwing a coin into the coin return bucket & trying to yank they key out without shutting the door

Don't know if I dare mention that she was very blonde...... she just really fit the very commonly held stereotype!

[Sparky]

Reminds me of when the bus company first got in some new buses...they had stickers near the signal things (to alert the driver that you wanted the next stop) that said "push here"---so people pushed on the stickers.

They don't use that type of signal any more

Oh God yes ...
Back in my busdriving days, most of our busses had a cord that ran above the windows that passengers would pull to signal they wanted off. A few passengers were too short to reach it when seated. We got a few new busses that had a plastic strip that ran across the top of the windows AND down in between the windows. It was bright yellow. "Great" we thought. "We can just say 'Push the yellow strip.'" But the managers decided this wasn't pretty so they changed the strip to black, which was the same color as the window frames. Passengers would push the sign with the arrow that pointed to the strip, the window frames, the windows, each other... everything but the strip. Drove us crazy.

But the strips didn't work well so they soon replaced them with a pull cord.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Buses around here just have giant red buttons, people know what to push. XD

[Dreamstalker]

The newer trolley cars on my main route home have big red emergency stop handles near some doors....at approximately waist level, and it looks like a handy little grab-bar to boot. Guess what some geniuses have pulled instead of tapping the yellow tape? Yup, the big shiny red handle <_<

[Chromatix]

That's probably why the emergency handles on most trains I've been on are above head height.

I believe the "tape" type bell works by hydraulic means - the small reduction in volume from a finger pressing it translates directly to the same volume increase at the far end. They've been around since at least the 1980s as a direct replacement for cord-pulls, so should be familiar to most travellers by now. But you're right - if they're deliberately painted the same colour as the rest of the interior, you won't know they're there.

Modern buses however seem to ignore this wonderful technology and fit oodles of buttons all over the place. Each one is red and is marked "PUSH". No indication of *what* it does when you push it, but people seem to get the idea quickly enough from watching others do it.

[MoonCat]

Sparky, yes, that's what it was! They got rid of those. We have the pull cords now.

The bus company is not known for making great decisions. Some years ago they bought a bunch of "new" buses---actually refurbished ones that had previously been used in....Florida.

Apparently it didn't occur to anyone at the company that these vehicles might be too light to be able to push through heavy snow.

[Jetfire]

Most of our buses have pull cords, with a few having tapes. Usually they aren't too confusing to use.

What does confuse people is the back door. We have 3 generations of buses on our lines. The newest and most common ones you wave your hand over your head to open the back door. The second oldest you have to push hte bars to open. And the oldest you step down and push the bars to open the door.

It's the middle type that's constantly mixing people up. If I'm on the old bust, it's inevitable that at least once on my trip home, we'll stop, and you'll see someone standing in front of the bars, waving at the top of the door. Or pushing the wrong bars, basically everything but the bars with the bright yellow tape right in front of them.