Progress towards achieving a unified kinetic picture of surface reactions has been uneven when nonequilibrium surface science and thermal equilibrium catalysis experiments have been compared and contrasted with electronic structure theory (EST) calculations of transition state characteristics. A simple, two to three parameter, microcanonical unimolecular rate theory (MURT) model of gas-surface reactivity has been able to largely close this "nonequilibrium gap" for several activated dissociative chemisorption reactions [e.g., H@sub2@ on Cu(111); CH@sub4@ on Ni(100), Pt(111), Ir(111), and Ru(0001); SiH@sub4@ on Si(100); and C@sub2@H@sub6@ on Pt(111)]. The MURT's ability to quantitatively predict and directly compare the results of disparate equilibrium and nonequilibrium experiments to one another and to the calculations of EST will be shown to open up some useful new opportunities to rigorously test and refine our understanding of reactive transition states and kinetics at surfaces. Identification of the essential role of surface phonons and the approximate spectator status of rotational motion in the H@sub2@ dissociation dynamics on Cu(111) will be highlighted in this talk.