This article will guide you through how to create a citizen survey about bike lanes and trails. You can build a high-quality survey with Specific in seconds, using expert AI and conversational logic.
Steps to create a survey for citizens about bike lanes and trails
If you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific—no lengthy process required.
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
You honestly don’t even need to read further. Our AI instantly creates a survey with the right expert logic. It even asks follow-up questions to help you gather deeper insights from your respondents—getting beyond surface-level answers.
Why citizen surveys about bike lanes and trails matter
It’s surprisingly easy to miss out on what your community really needs if you aren’t asking the right questions, at the right time. The importance of citizen feedback on public bike infrastructure can’t be overstated.
Nearly half (46%) of driving-age adults have access to a bicycle, and among them, 54% used it in just the last month. This proves that a large segment of the community actually depends on cycling for daily movement or recreation. If you're not gathering input, you risk overlooking vital user insights that directly impact current and potential riders. [1]
The absence of protected infrastructure isn’t just a minor inconvenience. Bicyclists riding where there are no bike paths are almost twice as likely to feel endangered. Missing out on these perspectives means your infrastructure plans might leave real safety gaps unaddressed. [1]
There's a strong demand for safer, protected bike lanes: almost 100% of cyclists and over 75% of residents in surveyed areas feel safer with these in place—even in cities built for cars. Not tapping into this sentiment through citizen surveys is a missed opportunity to prioritize community-backed improvements. [2]
When we don’t collect structured feedback, we risk building bike lanes no one uses, or missing the factors that would make cycling accessible, enjoyable, and safe. If you’re not running these citizen surveys, you’re missing out on data that can shape safer, more widely-used biking environments—and that’s a real loss.
What makes a good survey on bike lanes and trails
It’s not just about asking questions, but about asking the right questions in the right way. Good citizen surveys about bike lanes and trails use:
Clear, unbiased questions, so you don’t influence or confuse your respondents.
Conversational tone, making it comfortable for respondents to share honest thoughts and experiences.
Quality and quantity of responses are both critical: you want high participation and deep, actionable insights. A poorly built survey gets you one without the other.
Bad practices | Good practices |
Leading or confusing questions | Clear and unbiased questions |
Rigid formal tone | Conversational, friendly language |
One-size-fits-all surveys | Tailored questions + follow-ups for depth |
Types of questions for a citizen survey about bike lanes and trails
A great citizen survey about bike lanes and trails blends question types to get both structured data and rich stories. Here’s how to think about your choices.
Open-ended questions let citizens freely share stories or elaborate on concerns—essential for capturing unexpected insights about bike usage or safety. They’re great after a high-level feedback question or when probing for root causes.
“What motivates you to use—or not use—your local bike lanes?”
“Can you describe a positive or negative experience you've had when using bike trails in your community?”
Single-select multiple-choice questions make it easy to collect quantifiable opinions where responses need to be standardized, such as for prioritizing issues or rating satisfaction.
How do you feel about the current safety of bike lanes in your area?
Very safe
Somewhat safe
Neutral
Somewhat unsafe
Very unsafe
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question can measure how likely citizens are to recommend local biking facilities to others—a great, one-metric check on satisfaction trends Generate an NPS survey here.
How likely are you to recommend using the local bike lanes and trails to a friend or family member? (0 = Not at all likely, 10 = Extremely likely)
Followup questions to uncover "the why": After a closed or open question, followups are powerful for digging deeper—such as clarifying what makes a bike lane feel “unsafe” or understanding how citizens would improve access. For example:
What specifically contributes to your feeling of unsafety in certain areas?
If you could change one thing about the bike trails, what would it be?
If you’d like to explore over a dozen example questions, check out our in-depth guide to citizen survey questions for bike lanes and trails—including tips for writing your own.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey works like a chat—not a form. AI drives the interaction, asking questions and guiding the conversation based on what people say in real time. This feels more like texting with a real person, increasing engagement and honesty.
Compare this to traditional surveys, which are rigid and often abandoned. With an AI-powered survey generator (see Specific’s AI survey tool), you get:
Manual surveys | AI-generated surveys |
Manual design and writing | AI builds expert-level flow instantly |
No smart follow-ups | Conversational, intelligent probing |
Static forms | Feels like a human interview |
Why use AI for citizen surveys? With AI, you instantly channel research best practices, avoid writer’s block, and never worry about weak questions or missed angles. You create a natural survey for citizens about bike lanes and trails in seconds—customized, ready for deep insights, and way more effective at surfacing key findings. You can see how to analyze these survey responses with AI for further impact.
Specific gives you the best experience in conversational surveys, both for creators and respondents. The process is smooth, engaging, and tailored—unlike anything in the old forms world. For customization, the AI survey editor lets you adapt any survey by chatting with AI—change questions, logic, tone, and more in seconds.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are essential to conversational surveys. They step in when a citizen’s response is unclear or when the topic demands a deeper look. See how automatic follow-ups work to transform your data quality.
Specific’s AI follows up like an expert interviewer—prompting for examples, clarifications, or “the why” behind each answer. This means you avoid chasing respondents for more details via email and get richer, actionable context right away—often saving hours or days in your analysis workflow.
Citizen: “Some bike lanes feel scary.”
AI follow-up: “Could you describe what makes certain lanes feel unsafe to you? Is it the traffic, lane width, or something else?”
How many followups to ask? In most cases, 2-3 targeted follow-ups are perfect for going deeper without annoying the respondent. You can always customize the approach—Specific even enables a setting to stop probing once you have the insights you need.
This makes it a conversational survey—responses feel like a real conversation. It’s interactive, so you surface the details hiding under surface-level answers.
Easy AI analysis: Even if you have hundreds of open-ended responses, you can use AI for quick survey analysis to rapidly summarize, segment, and chat about your results. No more manual tagging or endless spreadsheets—just instant intelligence. You can also see how the AI survey response analysis tool works.
These automated follow-ups are a new way to unlock context. Try generating a survey and experience this conversational approach for yourself—it’s a game changer for citizen engagement.
See this bike lanes and trails survey example now
Get your hands on a fully conversational, expert-designed survey for citizens about bike lanes and trails—personalized, actionable, and ready to send in seconds. Create your own survey and discover just how much better citizen feedback can be when you combine AI, follow-ups, and a seamless respondent experience.