Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah Transit Authority is trying to give as many people as possible the chance to weigh in on a proposed 50 cent base-rate fare increase over the next three years. It's holding seven public hearings, one of which happened Tuesday night in Utah County. But UTA is also trying something more high tech.
Spokesman Gerry Carpenter says UTA has been looking at ways it can better use social media. On Thursday, for the first time, it'll be hosting a chat over Twitter.
"We felt it would be the right time to leverage this new technology in the form of a Twitter chat," said Carpenter.
He adds that any tweets from the public will be weighed just as heavily as if someone sent an e-mail or a letter with their ideas or concerns.
"People are going to have to be really concise to make their comments in 140 characters, but we will download a log of the entire Twitter chat and that will become part of the official public record," said Carpenter.
UTA's general manager Mike Allegra and other key staff members will be hosting the chat and responding to tweets on Thursday from 11 a.m. to noon.
UTA will be using its @rideuta account name for the chat. It will also be tagged with #utafare.
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
