Posted by & filed under Developer Blog.

I have to say, I’ve been nothing but impressed with UDOT’s use of Twitter. Not only are they constantly and consistently updating us on road closures, serious accidents, and construction progress, they are also very responsive and helpful to individual requests.

For example: Back in July, I was stuck in traffic—more specifically, at a dead stop in traffic. I whipped out my phone and sent a tweet to @UtahDOT asking them if they could give me a reason. I’ll be honest, I really didn’t expect a response, but within minutes I got my answer.

Fast forward to last week. My wife and I were complaining about the fact that no one was merging properly at the end of the new lane added to Highway 201 last year. People weren’t even attempting to merge until the lane had already ended and it was starting to annoy us. One day on the way home from work, I paid close attention and discovered why people were so slow to react: the road sign indicating a merge was place exactly where the lane ended, giving drivers little to no time at all to start merging in advance. So, when I got home I sat in my garage and sent out another tweet to UDOT, this time with a complaint rather than a question. I did not get an immediate response this time, however. UDOT went to work on the problem and informed me via Twitter the solution to the problem once it was already in motion!

Now that’s service!

I was beaming the rest of the day after their latest response feeling like I had made a difference in the world. The credit is not all mine, however. Twitter has changed the world. And UDOT deserves a shout out for putting it to good use! Thanks, UDOT.