Best questions for citizen survey about walkability and sidewalks

Here are some of the best questions for a citizen survey about walkability and sidewalks, plus tips on crafting questions that spark real insights. With Specific, you can build a high-impact survey in seconds—no manual setup required.

Best open-ended questions for a citizen survey about walkability and sidewalks

Open-ended questions help us dig deeper, capturing lived experiences and detailed feedback—use them when you want to surface issues, ideas, and nuanced opinions that quantitative options can’t touch. It’s how you learn not just what people think, but why. Here are ten powerful open-ended prompts for a citizen walkability and sidewalks survey:

1. What do you see as the biggest barrier to walking comfortably in your neighborhood?

2. Can you describe an experience where you felt the sidewalk was unsafe or inaccessible?

3. What features would make sidewalks in your area more inviting for everyday use?

4. Tell us about a place nearby that you think has excellent walkability. What sets it apart?

5. Do you avoid walking in certain areas? If so, what are your main reasons?

6. When you think about ideal sidewalks, what comes to mind?

7. How do sidewalk conditions affect your daily routines or habits?

8. In your opinion, what’s missing from current walkability initiatives in your community?

9. What changes to sidewalks or paths would most improve your sense of safety?

10. If the local government could address one sidewalk-related issue this year, what should it be?

Open-ended questions empower citizens to voice unique needs and concerns. This depth is crucial: for example, the National Association of Realtors reports that 85% of Americans see sidewalks and walkability as very or somewhat important features when choosing where to live, showing just how varied and deeply held these opinions are. [1]

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for a citizen survey about walkability and sidewalks

Sometimes, structure wins. Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when you need to quantify experiences, benchmark data, or kick off a conversation without asking respondents to think too hard. They help reduce friction and are great when you want to spot trends at a glance. Here are three strong examples for this topic:

Question: How satisfied are you with the quality of sidewalks in your area?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Somewhat dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: Which of the following is the biggest challenge for pedestrians in your neighborhood?

• Poor sidewalk conditions

• Lack of sidewalks

• Sidewalks blocked by obstacles (cars, poles, etc.)

• Unsafe crossings

• Other

Question: How often do you choose to walk for short trips (under 1 mile) instead of driving?

• Almost always

• Often

• Sometimes

• Rarely

• Never

When to follow up with "why?" Single-select questions make it easy for people to give a quick answer—but that’s just the starting point. The gold comes from follow-ups, often triggered by responses that suggest dissatisfaction or a pain point. For example, if someone says they’re ‘very dissatisfied’ with sidewalk quality, ask: “Why do you feel this way?” A great survey always digs for context.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? If you suspect your fixed options miss edge cases, always allow “Other.” This both broadens inclusivity and, through a quick follow-up (“Please specify”), uncovers unexpected issues. Sometimes, the most valuable feedback comes from answers you didn’t anticipate at all.

NPS-style questions for a citizen survey about walkability and sidewalks

Net Promoter Score, or NPS, is a proven metric for understanding overall loyalty or satisfaction. Instead of customers, you measure citizens’ willingness to recommend neighborhood walkability. This one question provides a baseline for how your community feels—and makes trends easy to track over time. For civic surveys, try an adapted format:

“How likely are you to recommend walking in your neighborhood to a friend or visitor?” (Scale: 0 = Not at all, 10 = Extremely likely.)

It’s simple, quantifiable, and reveals the ‘why’ behind people’s willingness to promote (or warn against) their own neighborhoods. If you want to try out this exact setup, you can generate an NPS-style survey in a few clicks with Specific.

The power of follow-up questions

If there’s one thing that can make or break a survey, it’s whether you ask smart follow-ups. A robotic form asks once and moves on; a truly conversational survey keeps probing, finds the real issue, and adapts in real time. Read how automated follow-ups work in Specific.

• Citizen: "Sidewalks are bad."

• AI follow-up: "Can you describe what you mean by 'bad'? Are they cracked, blocked, or missing altogether?"

If you don’t ask for details, you get vague, unhelpful data—hardly actionable. But with AI-driven probing, every response gets richer, and context is never lost. That’s why Specific’s survey engine automatically asks follow-up questions based on the respondent’s answers and the conversation’s flow, capturing data in a way that feels both human and efficient. It’s especially vital considering that 32% of adults living without sidewalks report dissatisfaction with their neighborhood’s walkability design[2]—but the root cause often needs a little exploration.

How many follow-ups to ask? Two or three thoughtful follow-ups are usually enough. Specific lets you customize the depth so your survey feels attentive, not tedious, and can move to the next question as soon as you’ve gathered the insight you want.

This makes it a conversational survey—people respond as they would in a real chat, and feedback is both natural and deep.

Automatic analysis, fast results. Even with lots of open-ended, unstructured feedback, AI survey response analysis makes spotting key themes and top issues easy. Trying to read and code hundreds of answers yourself? AI makes it instant. You can even chat with AI about your survey data—a game-changer for civic projects seeking actionable insight.

These automated follow-ups are a new way of collecting feedback—we encourage anyone to generate a survey and experience it firsthand.

How to compose prompts for ChatGPT (or other AI) to create survey questions

If you prefer brainstorming with an LLM like ChatGPT, a well-phrased prompt yields better results. Start simple, then add context for improvements. For example:

Ask for a list of questions to get ideas:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for citizen survey about walkability and sidewalks.

AI always does better with detail. Include a brief about your community, survey goals, or specific pain points:

Our city is a mid-sized urban area with mixed sidewalk conditions. We want to improve walkability for all age groups and abilities. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a citizen survey focused on sidewalk safety, accessibility, and daily walking habits.

Ask the AI to cluster its questions, so you can spot major themes:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Drill deeper into relevant areas. If “Safety” and “Access” come up as themes, focus in:

Generate 10 survey questions about sidewalk safety and accessibility.

This approach yields fresh, relevant questions specific to your needs—especially when paired with an AI survey generator like Specific, where these prompts power intuitive survey creation and editing via natural language chat.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a chat—not a form. Instead of standard question-after-question monotony, respondents are greeted with natural language, dynamic follow-ups, and real-time empathy. This human touch means people explain not just “what” but “why”—making for richer, actionable insights.

AI-driven survey builders like Specific flip the manual process on its head. No need to write out logic or tinker with branching: you describe your needs, and the AI structures questions, follow-ups, and categories for you. An AI survey can be built in seconds—even for topics as nuanced as walkability and sidewalk quality. That time savings is dramatic.

Why use AI for citizen surveys? You save time, reduce cognitive overload, and surface insights that manual surveys just can’t reach. Respondents enjoy the familiar feel of chat, and your team gets actionable themes—fast. Check out this guide on creating a citizen walkability survey to see how easy it is on Specific.

Specific offers a best-in-class user experience for conversational, AI survey examples—making feedback well-structured and engaging for both creators and citizens alike.

See this walkability and sidewalks survey example now

Transform the way you gather community feedback—see how automated conversations and smart follow-ups deliver richer insights on walkability and sidewalks, all with minimal effort.