User Guide

Last updated August 2023

Introduction

Citizen Insights (CI) offers citizens up-to-date visibility into publicly-facing services such as road service status for snow plows, salt spreaders, waste management, and street sweepers. State, Provincial, and local governments can use Citizen Insights to make this information available to the public, allowing them to better plan their travel by identifying and avoiding certain areas which have not yet been serviced. Citizen Insights helps governments maintain an open line of communication with their citizens while holding themselves accountable to reach desired operational targets.

Important information

Saving your changes

! IMPORTANT: Note that any changes you make to Citizen Insights will be discarded if you navigate to another page in MyGeotab. To permanently save your edits, you must click the Save and Publish button on the Citizen Insights Activity Manager page:

Public Works asset assignment

All vehicles displayed on the publicly-facing map need to be assigned to the appropriate service level group (branching from the root Public Works group) in MyGeotab. Correct asset assignment is important for displaying various service group activities, including roadway snow removal, sidewalk snow removal, waste collection, and so on. It will also be important if the agency decides to limit vehicles on the public map.

User data access and security clearances

The Citizen Insights Administrator must have their data access scope set to include the Public Works vehicles displayed on the publicly-facing map. An incorrect data scope setup in MyGeotab will prevent the Administrator from configuring the Citizen Insights service group vehicles, as described below.

In addition to the correct data access, the Citizen Insights Add-In Administrator requires the correct security clearance setting. The user administering Citizen Insights can be assigned any of the standard MyGeotab clearances or a custom clearance, as long as all of the following individual clearances are enabled on the account:

1. Administer routes
2. Administer users/drivers
3. Administer zones
4. Launch custom reports or Add-Ins
5. List devices
6. View groups
7. View zones
8. Change system settings*

✱ NOTE: The Change system settings clearance provides access to MyGeotab’s system settings. This security clearance feature is only required to access the route completion shapefile upload tool. Should you choose not to give the Citizen Insights Administrator this feature, they will need to work with your agency’s MyGeotab Administrator to upload the routes on their behalf.

Route segments

To show the level of service for street or route segments, you need to load the street segment GIS/mapping data through the Route Completion module on MyGeotab to display Routes on the map.

Boundary zones

The MyGeotab Administrator needs to create a boundary zone in MyGeotab that outlines the area for which you want to display service information to citizens on the public-facing map. To create a boundary zone:

1. Create a zone that outlines the boundary in MyGeotab. When creating the zone in MyGeotab, create a custom zone type and call it ‘Boundary’.
2. Assign your boundary zone to the boundary type.

Privacy

Citizen Insights customers are responsible for selecting the information that is displayed publicly to citizens. The application can display vehicle locations, vehicle types, groups, names, and street segments if the customer decides to provide that information to the public.

Citizen Insights system user

A Citizen Insights system user (citizeninsightsbot) is added to the database so that the data can be fetched using this account and displayed on the public website.

! IMPORTANT: This user cannot be removed. It will cause the public website to not work.

Citizen Insights Activity Manager

Citizen Insights is accessed by the customer’s Administrator in MyGeotab. The publicly-facing website can be managed from MyGeotab, and the Administrator can control what information is displayed to the public.

Citizen Insights Settings

The publicly-facing map is where government entities inform citizens about service routes and current service level of roads, sidewalks, and other service groups. Before adjusting your Citizen Insights settings, ensure you have set up your vehicles, groups, zones, and routes as required in MyGeotab.

You can choose your preferred method of delivering operational insights:

1. Embed the Citizen Insights website directly into your agency’s website.
2. Utilize a website hosted by Geotab configured with your customized agency branding.
3. Utilize the MyGeotab SDK to consume data feeds to use in agency-specific websites (please contact your Partner for more information).

Citizen Insights settings are accessed from the main menu under Citizen Insights Admin Staging:

On this page, you can configure all of the Add-In’s settings:

1. Base map settings
2. Public website settings
3. Social Media settings
4. Banner settings

Base map settings

To adjust base map settings, follow the steps below:

1. Select Citizen Insights Admin from the main menu to open the Citizen Insights Activity Manager page.
2. From the Citizen Insights Activity Manager page, click Base map settings under Settings.

3. Review each tab of the base map settings below and make any required changes.

Default Map View

On the Default Map View tab, enter an address within the region you want to determine as your default map view. Enter an address or latitude and longitude coordinates on the Find a location field to make it the default location citizens see when opening the map. You can also interact with the map by panning, zooming, rotating or changing the theme to determine the default map view for citizens.

Enter a zone on the Select a MyGeotab zone to set as a service boundary field to determine a geographic filter for the data. Asset data from outside the boundary does not appear to citizens. Select the checkbox if the boundary should be viewable by citizens. You can click Edit zone to open the Zones page.

Use the toggle to view the light or dark theme for the map on the public website.

When you are happy with the selected default map view, service boundary and theme, click Save and publish to apply your changes. To understand the publishing process, refer to the Publishing to the Map section.

Map Add-Ins

On the Map Add-Ins menu, you can add and configure additional plugins for the public-facing website. Only Trafficland cameras are supported at this time.

Enable the toggle to activate the plugin after selecting a MyGeotab zone as a service boundary:

! IMPORTANT: Remember to click Save and publish to apply your changes. To understand the publishing process, refer to the Publishing to the Map section.

Delay

On the Delay tab, choose the desired time delay for the display of live actions for assets on the map. The default value is 15 minutes.

✱ NOTE: Adding a delay avoids informing the public about the current location of service vehicles.

Languages

On the Languages tab, select additional languages to include on the public website. The available options are English, French and Spanish.

After selecting an additional language from the dropdown list, click the pencil icon next to the language name to enter translations for all website sections. To disable the language on the website, click the archive icon.

On the new language page, view the original language information and add translations to public website settings, service categories, and service groups.

! IMPORTANT: Remember to click Save and publish to apply your changes. To understand the publishing process, refer to the Publishing to the Map section.

Public website settings

Once you have configured the base map settings, continue to configure the public website. The public website hosts the public-facing map where citizens can follow information such as road service status for snow plows, salt spreaders, waste management, and street sweepers.

To configure your public website:

1. On the Citizen Insights Activity Manager page, click Public website settings under Settings.

2. From the Hosted website tab, enter your public website title and URL. The New website URL field displays your customized URL.

3. Click Set as new website URL to confirm.
4. Click Make public under the Current website URL.

✱ NOTE: This change will only be saved after you complete the next steps to publish the website.

5. Upload your logo to customize your website.
6. Enter the details you want to share about your organization on the About page field.
7. 1. Enable the Display on page load checkbox to display the About page when a user navigates to the site.
7. Enter the details you want to share about support on the Help page field.

✱ NOTE: The ‘About’ & ‘Help’ page should not have legal verbiage or disclaimers. Reserve legal verbiage and disclaimer to the Terms and services page.

8. To enter the agency’s legal disclaimers, contact your authorized Geotab Reseller to update the Terms of Use page.
9. 1. Enable the Allow access to site only if Citizen agrees to Terms checkbox to display your Terms and services on page load, and only allow the user to proceed if they accept the Terms.

   ✱ NOTE: The legal content of the Terms of Use page must be reviewed by Geotab legal.

9. Once you have completed all steps, click Save and publish.

Social Media settings

To integrate your social media content with the public website, click Social Media Settings in the Citizen Insights Activity Manager.

Banner settings

Banners are used to inform the public of any important events. To configure banners, click Banner Settings in the Citizen Insights Activity Manager.

Routes Versus Trip Trails

You can show either Routes or Trip Trails on your Citizen Insights website.

Routes are pre-set paths that fleets should be servicing. Only your fleet’s activity and road service status within these routes will be visible for citizens on the public-facing map. Select Show routes if desired and continue configuring the settings in the Configuring a Service Category section below.

! IMPORTANT: You need MyGeotab’s Route Completion upload and Exceptions engine to use Routes in Citizen Insights. Ensure that a single service rule exists in MyGeotab for each of your route completion service groups to use this feature correctly. For further instructions on setting up Route Completion in MyGeotab, please refer to the Route Completion User Guide.

Trip Trails show all places your fleet has passed, but does not show road service status. To display trip trails on the public-facing map, select Show trip trails, then choose a color for your trip trail. You can view your color selections against both the light and dark themes of the map. Citizens can view the map in either mode from the website once published.

✱ NOTE: If you select trip trails, continue to configure the vehicle service groups in the Active service categories, as described below. For this option, you do not need to configure time intervals.

Click Back to return to the Citizen Insights Activity Manager page.

Configuring Service Categories

To configure a service category when showing routes, follow the steps below:

1. Click the pencil icon beside the category name from the Service Categories section on the Citizen Insights Activity Manager page.

2. On the Display Settings section, use the toggle to set the service category as active (visible). When the toggle is disabled, the service category will not display to citizens on the public website.
3. Select an icon for the service category, and enter its name and description.
4. On the Service groups section, identify and select the MyGeotab service groups you want on this map. You can select multiple groups to display.
5. You can customize the visibility of the assets and routes for each group added to the service category by clicking the pencil icon next to the group’s name. You will be directed to the Service group page.

6. On the Service group page, you can make the group active, change the group's name, select an icon for service vehicles, and choose the vehicles and routes you want to hide on the map. You can also edit the legend label for the service status on the map.

! IMPORTANT: Vehicle names and routes that are not hidden will appear on the public-facing map. Do not display any confidential information.


7. Click the Back
   
   button to return to the previous page.
8. You can view the Preview theme for your service category in both light and dark themes.


✱ NOTE: Viewing the preview does not set the theme as the default for the public-facing map. This feature allows you to preview what the public-facing map will look like for the two options the users can see based on their background color theme.

9. Select hours or days as the time interval for the service category updates. By default, the application displays two time buckets: Serviced within the last 4 hrs (or days) and Serviced within the last 4 to 8 hrs (or days). You can edit the time intervals on each option and add more time buckets.

10. To configure time intervals, click the arrow next to the first interval.

11. Choose a color and adjust the hours you want for this interval. Enter a custom label if desired. The custom label replaces the Serviced within the last… title. Repeat the process for the next intervals, adding extra time buckets if desired.

✱NOTE: A maximum of the prior 30 days of data is currently available. Please be mindful of the limitation when creating your time intervals.

12. View your color selections against both the light and dark versions of the map. Citizens can view the map in either mode from the website once published.
13. When you are finished, click Back to return to the Citizen Insights Activity Manager page.

Editing Service Categories

From the Service Categories section on the Citizen Insights Activity Manager page, you have quick access to actions such as editing, removing or activating and deactivating service categories.

Click the toggle or icons beside each service category name to perform the following actions:

	Make the service category active on the public website. A blue toggle means it is active, while a gray toggle means it is inactive.
	Edit the service category.
	Remove the service category.

To change the order of how the service categories are displayed, click the left edge of a service category and drag and drop on the order you want.

Publishing to the Map

Any changes made to your CI settings take approximately 30 minutes to publish to the public website in either private or public mode.

1. Click Save and publish on the top of the page.

2. In the popup, click Yes, publish now to publish. A notification will appear when your changes have been successfully published.

✱ NOTE: Citizen Insight Administrators can publish and populate the text that displays on notification banners for Citizens to view from the Citizen Insight public facing websites.


3. Click Close to finish.

✱ NOTE: When the website is first published, you will be asked where you would like the website’s cached data to reside. The system will automatically store the data on a server located in the selected country.

Embedded Map

Follow the steps below to embed the Citizen Insights map within your own website:

1. From the Citizen Insights Activity Manager page, click Public website settings.
2. Click Show embed link.
3. Copy the iframe by clicking the copy icon.
4. Ask your IT team to place the iframe link in your HTML to embed the map in your organization's website.

✱ NOTE: You must enable and publish the public website to use this iframe.

Resetting Map Data

You can choose to reset all map data to show all streets as ‘not serviced’ when the map becomes rapidly outdated due to weather conditions. For example, a road that was recently serviced can be covered in snow again due to a storm.

To reset all map data:

1. From the Citizen Insights Activity Manager page, navigate to the Service Categories section.
2. Click the pencil icon beside the service category name.
3. Click Reset category activity at the top of the page.

4. Choose when to reset the activity. Selecting Now will reset the service category activity instantly, while selecting Schedule allows you to choose a date and time in the future to reset the service category.
5. Click Reset.